Wolf's Rain, the City of Rakuen
by Aknol
Summary: A Catholic Christian re-imagining of a classic anime. Cheza, held captive in her youth and forgotten by her own people, is called to help found a new city. Traveling, she must rely upon a stray wolf named Kiba to reach this goal, and awaken God's City.
1. Chapter 1

Aknol hereby acknowledges that she has no proprietary interest in the characters owned by Bones. However, Aknol reserves unto herself any and all proprietary rights in the within submitted fiction.

For Angelus. August 1979-May 2006. I have not forgotten.

_The wolf and the lamb shall graze alike, and the lion shall eat hay like the ox [but the serpent's food shall be dust]. None shall hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD._

Isaiah 65: 25

_Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; The calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them._

Isaiah 11: 6

She found she could monitor the passage of time through sound.

The distant thud of boots hammering a thoughtless yet efficient pattern from somewhere out of her field of vision meant it was morning. Later, it would be swallowed by the shuffling of many others, she could not discern just how many, who in their trodden, worn pace meant feet which scraped against gravel and stone. Sometimes, a haggard voice would force out, rather beautifully, some hymn. The bare slap of a broad hand upon a face would usually be enough to cut its strain.

By what must have been afternoon, the overloud laughter and the empty conversation of the guards, all men, could carry down to her cell. And, like a full circle, when the scraping pushed itself again towards her, she knew it must be evening.

From her calculation of the days, she reasoned how long she had been in the same place. A year, she thought, but she could not be certain. There were times she awoke without any connection to how long she had been away from consciousness. Whether it was mercy from The Lord who simply took her out of a horror, or a simple blackout from a trauma, she did not know.

That day, she thought of her mother. Her face, her hands, swam back into her memory distinctly. She could not do anything about the past.

But at least she could continue talking to her other, more Heavenly, Mother.

With difficulty, she produced saliva from her mouth, and spat upon the dirty floor. She had already rendered crude images of Mary upon the walls of her cell; now, she merely expanding upon the scene she had depicted. The young woman imagined the brilliance of Her Crown, and of many hearts surrounding Her, open and brilliant. Shining like stars. She stood among them. As in a field. Or even like a sea. From where She stood, she directed them all to God.

"This one will never be with the others if this one puts marks on walls," One of the guards had told her. What would have been the point; to live without love, without God? _This_, she reasoned, _is well with my soul_.

So she was being asked to wait. But for what? If it was for her martyrdom, she could embrace that. Some sacrifices lived on, she had learned. Yet there had been no attempt by anyone to deprive her of life, at least not so far. Time was another sacrifice, one which could be concretely accounted for in tallies on prison walls.

Her mother here on Earth…the nonsense songs she made up for this one. Her smile. The guards had not been able to beat all of the memories out of her mind. She could even hoarsely sing some of the lines if she had wanted. The tune was perched upon her lips that day, but instead, she pushed forth a small smile. In that instant, her thoughts about that woman drew her closely to the youth, and the woman was aglow like a gas lamp being carried down a corridor.

What games _had_ the guards played upon her? Or were they holding back from doing worse to her?

The sound of the clicking boots was approaching her. At this time of day, it was unexpected. It was just as well to her.

*********************************

When the officer found her, he took the time to observe the specimen through the prison bars. It was noted that she seemed half feral.

Her overgrown and dingy-shaded hair was matted. Through the mess, he could see hazel eyes peering back at him. They were sweet; almost human. _Almost_. A heat flashed through his body, which he quickly brushed away, laughing interiorly.

There was the smell of overripe flesh. He silently cursed to himself, thinking, _Hasn't this one even made an _attempt_ to keep the dirt of her cell off her?_ He wanted to turn the hose on her, but that was not his purpose for being there. She was hunched over, her knees drawn in. Not quite cowering at him, though she seemed unnatural in that pose.

He fought the urge to yell at her, to take her, to do anything to snap her out of her self-imposed catatonia. _Stupid, crazy witch_, he thought to himself. Instead, he commanded, "Get up. The one is expected."

**********************************************************************

The officer in the cobalt blue uniform had ordered this one out of her cell. His delicate, youthful face was locked in rigidity. His voice affected dispassion. It was fully incongruous to this one.

Her own feet felt unsteady beneath her. She felt the weight of her body as her legs struggled to push up from the ground with each uncertain step she took. She wanted to press against the wall for support, but she was certain that the kid-not-kid in front of her would knock this one over for making it dirty.

Finally, the concrete passageway revealed a door, which had inscribed the name of the captain on it. The non-adult "escorted" her inside, though it was more like he was pulling her with one calloused hand, while the other one was supporting her from crumpling like a rag doll before his superior. When he had this one in and standing, he stood at attention silently. _Absurdist and sick_, this on quietly appraised of the whole scene.

The two men chanted something foul about allegiance. Without speaking, this one's mind churned over the words, _Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed by Thy Name…_

"At ease. Stay with us until we're finished here, Claymont." The youth, presumably Claymont, stood next to the door impassively.

While thumbing through the papers in a file, the captain asked, "Name?"

"This one," the young woman responded.

The captain smirked, "That isn't your real name."

"It was given to this one."

He waved his hand dismissively. "You're going to be transferred. You aren't wanted here anymore." After arriving at a detail on the page in front of him, he raised his eyebrows. "The orders come from the top. Lord Darcia himself. Now, how is it that an ugly skeleton of a nothing creature like this one could be garnering so much attention?"

Silence. Her vacant stare, right back at him. Oh, she reeked, but the captain suppressed his strong distaste for her odor.

"Hm," he smiled, "you are brought before me, and yet you have so little to say? You were a real girl of value to everyone once. You were a prize to the state. You could go back to it, this one. You could go back into the world, and have a real life. Doesn't that sound so much better? Isn't that really what you want?"

This one raised her head slightly.

"Why don't you end this silly game you've been playing with us? Be with us, and live like us, and all of this will be over for you."

"It has been a long time coming," Croaked out this one.

The captain blinked, cleared his throat, and regained his composure. _Amazing_, He marveled, unsure of her, of himself. _After months of struggling with her, I ask this one a question, and _now _she wants to come back?_

He gazed at her paternalistically. "It has been a long time for you, hasn't it?" He nearly held his breath. Then, he quickly reminded himself that she was not worth feeling any amount of suspense.

"It has been a long time coming. And now, He is coming."

The captain shook his head. "He?"

She beamed with a self-possessed triumph. "He is coming. He shares in His Glory with those who would have it. He ignites the hearts of many men. He is coming to judge those who have defiled His Word-"

The captain groaned, overlapping the influx of her drivel. He motioned for Claymont, who appeared by the girl presently.

"You had a chance in this life," Captain leaned across the desk to better survey the living disaster before him. "But it doesn't matter now. You're going to Lord Darcia. You're his problem."

"Your king on high is the Antichrist. Your king is dead. As you now stand here talking, he has just committed suicide. I am not the one being exiled; you are. Nothing will hold your people together anymore."

Captain restrained himself from slapping her. Lord Darcia had specified that she was to arrive physically unbroken. He reminded himself that it was also a stipulation he had wanted from the guards when she first came here. He had thought she would be so much more…_appealing_ to his eyes without broken bones.

He consoled himself instead by cursing. "You're nothing to us, do you understand?" he finally spat at this one. "And your words are garbage."

He nodded to Claymont, and this one was dragged from the room, her ethereal contentment beneath grey and flimsy fabric found a way to burn straight through him. The door slammed. _Whiskey_. The word seemed like a promise to him suddenly. He needed whiskey.

**************************************************************

After some time had passed, she was sprawled again upon the floor of her cell. She could count Rosary decades with her fingers, and tonight, she wanted something to be done through it. Her mind could not be pacified. She knew that the men who watched her were aware of what she was doing, yet no one made a move to stop this one.

Her head was propped up by her arm; her fingers tingled from having fallen asleep. She switched sides.

She had learned how to wait, so she waited.

*********************************************************

Even after two glasses of whiskey were downed, the captain's animosity remained.

He hated how smug and self-righteous these so-called people were. He should have been able to strip her of her peace of mind long ago. But no, she was placid in her own delusions.

Lord Darcia finally took to claiming her? Fine. He did not care to know the reasons; after all, was it really his business to know what Nobles did, or _why_ they did anything?

But he could make matters sweeter for himself. He would comply, and not break her body. But he could break her sense of hope, once and for all. He felt more assured of his actions as he began to reason, _She deserves that_. _Her kind are all here for a reason. They brought this upon themselves_.

He smiled. He remembered why he enjoyed his position of authority.

************************************************************

At some point, her mind had stopped spinning those thoughts; they did not seem reliable to her. The past and the present; she could bring spread the images of her life before her like a collage. It was confused, the memories all enmeshed. She pushed them forth like a child's sailboat, as if God were waiting on other end of a pond to receive them.

She could not recall falling asleep. Yet eventually, she grew aware that she was involved in a dream.

Colors took on life and texture. The sepia of her wall mural was no more. It was vibrant, it was real. She could walk freely in a place where no malice found her.

Suddenly, she thought, _Is this Her Garden_? _Or am I nearing Paradise itself?_

No one answered, but she marveled at the dark green, visible through moonlight. Then, figures flashed before her-animals of some kind. She strained her eyes to see them. From a distance, one of them ascended a cliff. He was a white wolf.

_They all were killed years ago_, this one remarked. _There aren't any wolves left_.

Someone had forgotten to tell him that he did not exist, apparently. He seemed so tangible to her, if only she too would climb upon those rocks!

_Yes_, she smiled. He was a stately figure before her. And she had decided that she loved this eternally-stretching garden. Then, the wolf raised his head to the moon and howled. This one followed his gaze upward. Clouds like liquefied silver began covering the moon. The tremulous formations broke, and it rained upon her. She was unaware of any cold, so she did not mind the sensation of becoming wet.

Growing drenched, she called out, "Lord, why do you show me these things? I will be killed soon. Are you showing me where I am going to be with You? Yet I see Your Goodness, and I will do whatever You ask of me. I adore You."

She dropped to her knees, and her head lowered. As she peered downward, she found the rain carrying the dirt from her skin and garment, the muddy streams flowing away from her.

That was when she heard His Voice. The sound defined melody. Its strain shattered every barrier between them, so that she could know perfect intimacy in His Words.

"My beloved child, you have pleased Me in the sacrifices you were willing to make in your life. And therefore, I am preserving your own life. It is not yet your time to return to your eternal home. Instead, I ask that you watch over My People in a new city which I shall build for My Faithful."

She exhaled quickly, confused. She found every hidden room inside her opening to an influx of immense love, and she was razed. She was struggling, but failing, to understand His Words. For the first time in a long while, she found herself grinning. There was nowhere to run from being consumed entirely by Him in His tenderness for her.

"I will do it, Lord. But what is it that You want me to do?"

The lush garden faded from her sight, retreating like a constellation at daybreak. In its stead, she saw the guards asleep at their posts. She was taken further, past the prison, and came to a wooded area where a tree stump stood.

"Leave here. Speak to no one until you arrive at the place you now see. The wolf will protect you and be your companion as you follow the course to My new city."

She found herself again forming the words, "Yes, Lord." All the while, in her mind, she was chanting, _I'm alive, I'm alive_. Gratitude was teaching her new tongues. She did not burst from absorbing it all, as she feared she would. Instead, thanksgiving seemed to pour out of her. Something near this one began to stir. It was a tiny whispering sound. She listened.

"_Awaken_."

Her eyes shot open. She felt the cold ground pressed against her face. Lifting her head, she looked at her environs unsteadily. _The cell_, she realized. Then, the familiar stench of sanitized death began to waft in to greet her.

Her blood was quick in her veins. It felt like inebriation and reverence coinciding as it pulsed through her. Without any degree of surprise, she noticed that her cell door had been swung wide open.

She pulled her knees into her chest, rose unsteadily, and began to walk. The threshold finally felt like a door _to_ somewhere, instead of a gate barring her from whatever was found beyond its reaches. She passed through without difficulty. She continued slowly through the dank and functional corridor. The way was set before her, precisely as she had dreamed it. She held her breath as she encountered guards slumped over, saliva trailing from their mouths onto their faces and chins, and still, as if in a deep sleep. She would have lingered to observe just what had come over them, but her overwhelming drive to leave seemed more important. By the time she had neared the exit, she had witnessed five of them at least, either flopped upon the ground, or seated, head down like dummies which had been arranged haphazardly. She thought she heard heaving breathing, like snoring, from one of them, though she reasoned it did not matter if these were alive or dead. Their judgment was coming.

She left. _She left._ The sunlight, which she had only had access to from a small window five feet above her before, poured upon her. She flinched at its garishness, its touch. This was hard. She wanted to run, but her legs began to buckle under her. She teetered back to an upright stance, and nearly staggered towards the wooded area. The trees were totally leafless, though she did not feel cold.

_Hello, trees_, this one thought. She did remember what they were. She looked up as she made her way through the woods. The only one watching over the scene was a crow, who seemed irritated to be there.

Her feet were loudly snapping twigs as she clambered through. She did not care. She had to get to the place shown to her. Finally, the tree covering thinned, and she could detect the clearing.

When she arrived, she pressed her hands against the stump for support before sinking back to sit upon it. She gratefully gulped the air, and at last noticed how different it felt against her throat and how it tasted. Somehow, there was no burning in her trachea anymore. She was weak, but without fear, and the air was making her stronger; she knew it.

She lingered in the stillness. After a point of some twenty minutes, she heard a rustling noise approaching her. She sat up, attentive.

His figure was in shadow, from a distance. But by the time he had reached where this one was, the sun was like a spotlight upon his face. He was a young man clad in casual clothing, she observed. He was just out of his boyhood, perhaps in his early twenties. He wore jeans, tennis shoes, and a dark pullover jacket. He was staring unusually fixedly upon her, so it was hard for this one to ignore his features. Pale skin with only traces of gold upon it; no sanguine shades to be found upon his cheeks. His thick coal hair fell to all different lengths, as if he had paid a fortune to have a stylist make it appear naturally disheveled. His eyes were blue, like a gas burner turned up too high. Crayola blue.

Mary's blue.

Painfully conscious of the staring, this one jumped (as much as she was capable of jumping) to her feet. Her eyes watered over in her confusion, and her left hand instinctively flew to her mouth. She subconsciously began to gnaw on the cuticle of her thumb.

"It's okay!" The young person exclaimed, seeming to be surprised at her reaction. Collectedly, he raised his own left hand, and turned it so the back of it was visible to her.

There was no mark.

This one felt warm liquid spilling into her mouth. She looked down, and realized that the biting had caused her badly chapped skin to break. She was bleeding.

The boy noticed the thumb, now dripping scarlet (perhaps the moment after she did), with some inkling of compassion. Then, his gaze returned to her face.

This one still did not know whether to run to him or _from_ him. _How long has it been since anyone has touched this one with kindness?_ she wondered. _If only he would put his hand on this one's arm, this one's shoulder…_

_Stop thinking that way!_ a more rationed part of her ordered.

After that uncomfortable moment of regarding each other had passed, he spoke; "You are waiting for someone."

"This one is waiting for someone, but not for you."

The boy glanced behind him. "We don't have time for this." He gestured for her to come close, seeming agitated. "You don't get it? You're not safe here. Others are coming; I can hear them."

This one took a step backwards, and rested her hand firmly upon the stump. She knew she could counter his arguments. "But"-

She nearly gasped when she looked across the field. The boy was no longer there; he had…_faded_, somehow. As his frame became increasingly less distinct, a new form emerged, even more prominent than what had been there before. It was clean whiteness, elongating, coming to angular points, triangle ears, a rounded muzzle…

A wolf. The boy was a white wolf.

"Now," he said. His mouth did not move, although she heard words being uttered with perfect clarity. "Will you come?"

She was moving, as quickly as she was able. And she knew she wanted him by her side already.


	2. Chapter 2

The ground was uneven. She felt twigs poking underneath her, with the roots of a massive tree elevating her feet. Dead leaves had stuck themselves to her face.

Sunlight from daybreak had trickled in through the filter of trees. The crows had returned, cawing for the sake of being heard. The newness of each sensation was slowly drawing this one out of her sleep.

She inhaled deeply, and found she was forcing dirt into her nostrils. She coughed, and raised her head.

A pair of brown eyes were watching her. They had gold in them, too, like a generous portion of honey in tea.

This one tried bolting to her feet. Her legs caved at her own weight, and her scrawny buttocks smacked the forest floor.

The owner of the pair of eyes jumped back, as well, seeming to be just as startled as she was. The commotion and her panic were enough to wake her to the point that she recognized him to be boy, probably no older than twenty-one. Irish-looking, with sandy-shaded hair, and a face full of freckles. His frame was a little wide; his face round. He was only slightly more coordinated than she as he jumped up. "Whoa, whoa! Easy!"

He waited. Her eyes were wide, confused. She was not running from him. "Easy," he murmured to her again. He lifted the back of his left hand up to show her. There were no markings on it. "I wasn't gonna hurt ya. See?"

The air around him seemed to compress as the shades of brown and sand took dominance over his form, and she saw him as he was; another wolf.

She wiped her face with her palms. In a single, casual leap the wolf was next to her. She marveled at him. She had never been so close to wild animal before. He looked like a dog, but seemed to carry himself with greater pride than one. In her yearning, she reached…and found her hand sinking into the tawny fur. The wolf cocked his head, sizing this one up. Then he leaned in and licked her face.

She had missed contact with another, the kind that was meant in care. She recognized just how much as her hand swept up and down the smoothness of his fur, feeling the warmth of his skin underneath. Her other hand reached and touched his back in a loose embrace. She wondered if she would weep. Instead, she found that she swam in her own serotonin too much for her to cry over it. "What's your name?"

"_Hige._"

After a moment, she released him, and the wolf reluctantly trotted back to a comfortable distance from her. He was back to being human in appearance, practically lounging in front of her.

_How…?_ This one wondered. She shook her head and let it be.

For his own part, Hige seemed bashful after reveling in her affection. He giggled to himself and stared at the ground, picking the bark off a nearby twig. He did not look up as he said, "Kiba was right. You smell amazing."

"Who is Kiba?"

Hige looked up from his twig, gawking. "That guy you were with last night! You mean, he never said-" Hige stopped himself and groaned knowingly. "That's just like him!" He grinned and continued, "What do you remember about last night?"

"We were traveling for a time, this one and the white wolf you just called 'Kiba'. We stopped after the sky was dark. This one does not remember much else."

"We had all met up, but you were passed out asleep." He feigned disapproval. "So lazy!"

"Oh! This one is sorry."

"I'm teasing you." Hige lightly kicked at her foot.

"Oh." She nodded her head formally.

"You're really strange, do you know that? But I like you." Hige was grinning again. This one began to think that Hige must laugh a lot.

The girl sat up on her own, stretched, and slowly made it to her feet. "Where is he? Kiba."

"Foraging. The others are scouting. They'll be back soon."

"You mean, there's more of you?"

"There are four of us. With you, that makes five. Wolves travel in packs, where we can help it. All of our true packs disbanded, they came apart. I'd been on my own for a while." He paused to watch her reaction. She was listening intently. Finally he nodded towards her right. "Those are for you, y' know."

On the ground near her was a marvelous and rich rose-hued cloak. It was folded over a pair of pink galoshes. It must have seemed absurd for her to walk in rain boots no matter what the weather was doing, but they seemed sturdy and durable.

"Where did you find these?"

"In one of the towns. It's easy for me to get around in them. An' I know how to get things." He seemed casual about those statements, but she detected a certain boasting behind his words.

She glanced over the gifts; her eagerness to cast off the traces of the last few years of her life was coupled with her innate sense of wariness. "Before this one went away, they said the things The Nobles give to you, even the clothing, is laced with poison. It's in the dyes, and in the threads. It would go through your pores and make you sick."

"I know their poisons. If it was in there, I would have smelled it. It's safe."

She unfolded the cloak. It was woolen, and well-constructed. Something just for her, this one, who was nothing. She drew it to herself. "It's wonderful! Thank you. And thank You, Heavenly Father."

Hige seemed pleased. "Yeah. You're welcome." As this one sat and worked her calloused feet into the galoshes, she remembered something.

"In that place where this one came from, I used to paint you. I saw wolves in my mind, and I painted them."

Hige did not know her meaning. But he was still curious. "What were we doing in them?"

"There was a field, and all of you were running toward a light. You were running out of darkness, but you did not seem to be in fear of the dark. It was like you only knew that there was a light."

Hige considered that carefully. Then, he said, "Hey."

This one raised her head from her own task.

"It's going to be…okay now, isn't it? I mean, with you here, things are going to be different. Things around us will change."

She worked her feet into the boots. Remarkably, they seemed to fit her well. "Come here," she beckoned to Hige. Once again, he was next to her, as a wolf. Her hands gently clasped the sides of his face, her thumbs touched his muzzle. "Hige, listen to this one. What we are going to witness will be greater than anything we can imagine. We'll see the world going back to God to be renewed. This task, this journey, is much bigger than any one of us. But if we are ever to survive what's coming, we must do what The Lord says, exactly as He says. His Word must be inscribed upon our hearts. Do you understand?"

"_I can do that."_

**************************************************

He had watched old cities burn. He'd seen the forests being consumed by greed. These were humans who always wanted more.

Kiba was unsure which had endured the worst of it; was being dragged away from life at any early age and living in isolation worse than watching life fall apart before your eyes?

The pristine domes had arrived unannounced to all, encroaching upon what remained of the wilderness with each passing season, widening as if bloated. He had entrenched himself further into those woods each time, away from the acrid smoke and the stinging disinfectant smell of change.

He would have stayed as long as he was able, but he was being pulled to run. For what, he did not know. But when his dreams broke, he would awake with new sensations, like strange colors and sounds, and the scent of a foreign flower would waft towards him.

The flower in the wasteland he had found so far. Her name was Cheza. He would protect her.

Now he believed in The City of God, in Rakuen. He believed what he would find would bring sense to chaos and order. And he was convinced wolves would live to see it.

************************************************************

A plaintive, slurred voice called out from across the hallway, "My Lord Darcia, will you join us?"

There was revelry in the other room. Bodies were upon each other. Darcia could not be certain what they were doing collectively. The guests of The Keep did what they liked, moved however the moment enticed them to.

"No, Justin," he returned cooly. He had grown weary of the blood-letting, and needed to think. There was business to tend to.

He shut the door on those favored of The Nobles, now mostly inebriated through some means, and stole into a dimly-lit room, decked in fine wood and lush fabrics. The bookshelves brimmed with the topics of world religions, alchemy, ancient polytheistic ceremonies, and culture, mainly art. He had explained to an advisor once of it, "If we are to communicate with the world, we must do it through its faith. We must learn to speak the language of the world, as people have always spoken to each other. Long before people knew, they believed."

His love, Harmona, was connected to the room, in her own sub-chamber, encased in glass. He never desired to leave this room, but there were times that his duties and commitment to Harmona required him to.

He had called for Rease, his aid, to brief him. In a matter of minutes, the aid appeared at Darcia's door, and was granted entry.

"Praise be to you, Lord Darcia, and to our master."

"Thank you, Rease. What is your word?"

"It's Cheza, my lord. The one you called for. The Captain and Lord Orkham report that she has escaped."

Darcia nodded his head. "Good."

Rease started. "Sir?"

"The world's people are dying off only because of their own weakness. The old ones ruined enough. They made their people comfortable as they consumed and squandered."

Rease nodded along with the statement, although he felt patronized. He knew this already. "Of course they did, my lord."

"And all their leaders did was distract them. They spoke of faith."

"Yes," Rease looked at Darcia uncertainly. "But I was speaking of Cheza."

"The one we need would overcome the obstacles set before her. The key to everything would not be weak." Darcia abruptly stood from his chair, and walked to the doorway, the entrance to where his Harmona slept. "But tell me, why did Orkham let her go?"

"I have some thoughts, sir."

"Say them."

"There are rumors that the implants have begun malfunctioning in Freeze City. The people are becoming erratic, unreliable. If it's true, he'd have too much to handle now to try to hold prisoner you want."

"This was a delicate operation from the start. Orkham mistimed everything."

Rease smiled. "If I may, my lord, this hunt is going to be an excellent pursuit."

"Well said, Rease."


	3. Chapter 3

He weathered the complaints. He knew that he was bound to hear the misgivings of the other wolves.

It wasn't enough that a great part of a promise had walked to them in the form of a girl, her steps doddering and uncertain like a newborn doe's. She was nothing like what anyone had expected, and she would pay for her differentness with their guardedness.

Before Kiba met her, not long after his makeshift pack had been formed, he had seen his own kind turn their backs on the future. _You were chosen_, he wanted to shout at them. _Chosen for Rakuen_. Instead, as he thought of ways to remove himself from the sight of their lack of self-respect, one of them charged him, "Where do you think you're going?"  
Toboe, the youngest and smallest of Kiba's pack, said boldly, "To Paradise."

The elders, all with dead eyes, smirked. Some began to chuckle.

"Why are they laughing?" queried Toboe. That was the hardest for Kiba. The kid was pretty innocent. There was no way to explain to Toboe how cynical others were going to be.

"Because," replied Kiba loudly enough to be heard by them, "they obviously have no idea what it is."

The first full day that Cheza had joined the pack, he decided to take action. While she was still speaking to Toboe, Kiba pulled her aside. "Look at me," he began firmly. Puzzled, she complied.

"Your name is Cheza. From now on, when you talk about yourself, you say, 'I.'"

Cheza turned her head in the opposite direction. She tried to remember why calling herself by her real name made her feel as though her lungs were being compressed, and why her right hand was trembling, but she could recall nothing in her panic.

"_Cheza_." Kiba's voice was caring, but a direct command. He pushed her head back towards him so they could maintain eye contact. "Say, 'My name is Cheza.'"

"M-m! _My_." She thought she remembered something now. Someone…someone had been shoving her head into a barrel of water; holding it there. Kiba was still watching her intently.

"My name," he gently prompted.

"My nnn.." Her lungs were raw. She couldn't breathe. She eyes filled with tears. "_No_!"

Somewhere, locked within her own mind, she remembered that two men were laughing. _What is your name_? they jeered. _Tell us your name_.

"You're hurting her!" Toboe had been observing the scene with an increasing sense of alarm. He tried to jump in between them.

"I'm not!" Kiba shouted. "The people who took her hurt her."

Toboe scrambled to the side of the clearing, still wanting to see. Hige looked on at the scene dryly. The last wolf, Tsume, pretended not to notice.

Cheza's face felt hot to her. She was embarrassed that she was impeded from talking about herself. It made her feel funny, abnormal. Shaking off her nervousness, she sighed, still refusing to look at Kiba.

Kiba leaned in, and spoke low in Cheza's ear, still not quite touching her. "Those bars the other day, they were nothing to you. God let you walk through walls. Now you just have to keep walking. Claim the life that He is giving to you."

Cheza stood still, considering. When her thoughts connected to that perfect Voice she had heard in her dream, she saw the scene again, this time more detached. That day had been cruel, but the men's sins were nothing-_nothing_-compared to the impact of mercy.

"I'm Cheza, aren't I?" Her words streamed out slowly, uncertainly. She knew that before she was this one, she was someone else. She could not recall when she stopped being a girl, when she was taken away, but she did remember that someone had thought of her as more than a thing when she was little.

"Yes," Kiba smiled a little. "You are Cheza." He turned and walked back to the pack.

Cheza shook her head. There was so much she did not understand. "Kiba!" she called suddenly.

Kiba stopped and turned.

"How did you know this-_my_ name?" she stammered.

"Because you're not the only one who has been told things."

* * *

As Cheza stared after Kiba, who seemed to be talking to the other wolves, she noticed the pup, Toboe, was still hovering by the edge of the clearing. "It is all right," she coaxed. "Do you want to come here?"

The boy shuffled his "feet" and finally approached her. "What're you doing?"

She let her hand rest upon his head as she replied, "The one known as Tsume found this knapsack. I am going to fill it with the foodstuffs that you and Kiba found, like this bread, and then we'll start walking."

As she stuffed the few but much appreciated bits of food into her bag, Toboe remained entrenched. "But where are we going?"

The other wolves halted their conversation and looked over at the pair. As she felt their attention shifting to her, Cheza recognized that they must not know where their destination was.

"I know it is somewhere south of here. We have to keep moving south," she explained firmly. "But I do not know which direction that is."

Kiba interjected, "I do. The few woods that are left are in the south. It will be easy for us to hide."

Cheza slipped on her knapsack. "And soon, we will never have to hide again. Just think!"

Kiba beamed at her, though only for a moment. Slipping back into his cool façade, he quickly added to others, "We should get started, then."

What seemed like a simple enough task; walking through a bare forest, was proving to be complicated.

Cheza's muscles seemed to have atrophied from disuse and from being given a dubious diet. She was moving, but not at a pace which contented Tsume. He watched her determination as she planted each foot before her, trekking a rhythm of a most deliberate procession.

_Sure,_ he reasoned, _Rakkuen will come to us. If we are willing to wait another five years for it!_

He continued to observe as time passed. He found himself growing irritated as he saw each of the wolves masking some attachment to her beneath his pride. Couldn't they see who she was, or how meager they were in comparison to The Nobles' troops? Finally, Tsume decided to make an appeal to Kiba. He would speak his mind before he would consider acting on his own.

As Kiba trudged forward in front, and Hige and Toboe flanked Cheza some distance behind, Tsume broached the subject, "You can't really believe that that girl is The Flower Maiden, can you?"

Tsume was not known for subtlety in his approach, and Kiba had grown used to it. "Haven't you smelled her?"

"Yeah. She smells something awful."

"That's the prison you're smelling. It is already starting to fade from her. You know she bears the scent of lunar flowers within her."

He would not be placated. "If wolves were meant to carry out some mission, it sure wouldn't be with any of you!"

Still in human form, Kiba was able to raise an eyebrow at the remark.

"Look at us; a runt pup, a careless porker, and a half-wild human girl. We're not gonna make any difference."

"You're right."

Tsume laughed haughtily before Kiba was able to continue.

"If it were just up to us, it wouldn't be enough. Nothing anybody does would ever be enough to take back The Earth. But it's not up to us. God is bigger than all of us. He can make anything happen, and it is us He wants."

At the moment when the conversation had lulled, Cheza could be heard tripping. Then loudly and harshly falling against something, like a root of a tree.

Tsume rolled his eyes. "Good luck …" he muttered. He stopped walking long enough to let the others pass him before leaping into the thickness of the trees and vanishing.

Toboe turned towards Tsume's point of departure, then looked back at the pack, pained with indecision. Finally, he called, "Tsume, wait up!" and bolted after the bigger wolf.

Cheza, on her feet once more, sighed and shook her head. "That is just great, Kiba," she remarked. "Now we've lost two of our own."

"They're not lost to us," Kiba replied. Still, he could see that she was unconvinced. "They'll see that the only path is the one set before us."

"But how do ya know what that is?" Hige finally interjected.

"You keep praying. And part of prayer is listening. You will not hear if you do not bother to listen," Cheza said quietly.

Hige was unusually silent at this. He chewed his lower lip in contemplation, possibly also thinking of the next meal he would be able to have.

Kiba was by her ear again. "Come on. We can rest in a little while, but for now, we have to keep moving."

"This-I mean, _I_ understand. _I_ have no trouble with moving." Eager to please him, Cheza dared to walk faster, even as her tight muscles attempted to constrict her movement.

Kiba nodded, and Hige took her arm in his "hand." The cheer on his face showed he was done with being quiet. "Ya know, Kiba's always let Tsume on a long leash. I never understood why. He is not worth the trouble, if you ask me."

"He made a choice by coming along with us in the first place. That would be a sign that he desires all this journey has to offer. I suppose we should be patient with him, and let him come back if he wants to."

"_He's_ the one who needs this." Hige's "hand" looped around the collar which he wore loosely. Cheza did not recognize the writing, but it looked a little bit like an "X" to her. "He's been acting like a mutt."

"We'll have to let that go." As she waded through dead brush, she easily snapped off a twig, and began to peel it of its bark.

Hige cocked his head. "You look like you wanna say something."

"I am not even sure what time of the year it is. I thought I did, but the land is so confusing now. Do wolves track those things in the way that humans do?"

"_I_ do. Do y' see how grey everything is, with no leaves? You haven't seen many other animals around either, have you? It's February."

"_February_?" Cheza started. "But it is so warm here!"

Hige laughed, shaking his head. It sounded and felt different to her than the sneering she had overheard from Tsume a few minutes prior. Kiba turned and looked back at them both. Cheza noticed a wistfulness that crossed over his features.

"_What_?" she exclaimed. "What is so funny?"

Hige sighed. "Nothing. It's just that you've been gone for a long time."

Breezes rusted the leaves from autumn, cracked and decayed. The branches above her swayed rhythmically. And still, their only witnesses remained crows. Cheza wondered when she would find others, and where they might be. She smiled at Hige, to encourage him along. Then, she tried to jog ahead to Kiba, and managed to catch his "hand" in her own. To her surprise, he did pull away from her. Instead, his fingers interlocked with her own. It felt warm and powerful.

_Come back to us, Toboe_, she thought silently, _it is too dangerous for you both out there_.

Toboe knew he could be a real warrior. Tsume would show him how to fight, to protect himself and what he cared for. He would be an adult in the eyes of all who saw him. His own instincts were keen, but the sights before him were new, unfamiliar. It confused him.

He was on his feet, yipping at every new sound. Then his heart would slam against his chest until he felt dizzy from it. He missed the sight of his old grandmother's house, but he would never admit it to Tsume. He could not yet hunt for himself as well as he knew he was supposed to, but he would learn. Tsume was the biggest and bravest wolf he had ever known, and he was letting him come with him. _Letiing_ him!

Toboe was surprised by how quickly they left the woods behind them. In a sloping field with dead, blanched grass, they both smelled the warmth and the sweetness of rabbit before they detected the patch of white with ovid eyes, frozen in terror. Toboe thought to slowly creep towards it, but as he started his descent, Tsume was already there, shaking the animal, the back of its neck in his jowls.

Toboe joyously bounded over to join him in the feast. Tsume nudged the carcass towards him with his snout without remark. They both took care to skin the catch with their teeth, the soft fuzz of rabbit fur beginning to crown their muzzles.

As Toboe took his fill, he asked, "What do you want to do now, Tsume? Where are we going to?"

"Does it matter, Runt? We're surviving."

"_I don't_," Toboe added quickly, pretending not to care. "I just wondered, that's all."

So after the meal, Toboe hesitantly stepped away from the field, sniffing, listening, exploring. He had to be careful not to breathe too deeply, or the old gunpowder thickness in the air would make him choke. There were pieces of old machines strewn across the distance. They looked like oversized tin boxes, which held nothing, and elongated ebony human arms, reaching to nowhere. It was weird, and it made Toboe so curious that he forgot to be afraid. As he sniffed at a box, a red light on it flashed and began to blink, blink, blink.

The sudden appearance of the light alerted Tsume, who jerked his head towards where Toboe was. His eyes widened. This could not possibly be good.

"Toboe!" he called urgently.

Toboe looked up innocently. "Come on!"

Just as he said this, a thin, metal pole rose from the ground, containing a box. It flashed a red light and beeped.

Tsume lunged toward Toboe, and pulled him by the scruff of his neck. Toboe yelped in alarm and pain. Tsume sprinted from the scattered equipment and heard the roar of a localized explosion. A force at his back pushed him further than he could jump, and the two landed on a patch of dry grass.

Disoriented, but mostly unharmed, Toboe surveyed the damage. "Tsume,-"

"Stay down," he commanded. Presently, the two heard voices.

"Yeah. It came from over there."

The two wolves took on human appearance as they hid behind a mound of dirt. Coming into view were four soldiers: they wore rounded helmets over their heads and were clad in trench coats.

"I don't see anyone. Do you think that an animal set it off?"

"Maybe, but it's possible that it tamed a stray dog or something."

"Really? You think so?"

"It's clever enough for that." This soldier, Tsume assumed, was their leader. The man continued with, "Search the area. After that, scope the woods ahead of us. It would be the most obvious place for it and whatever it has with it to hide."

Tsume gritted his teeth. In his mind, he began shouting, _No! No, no!_ He was already on his feet as the soldiers ran for their reinforcements. "We can move faster than they can. Let's warn the others."

Hige and Kiba both raised their heads as they heard the rapid footfalls of people running.

Kiba recognized the sound first. "It's Tsume and Toboe."

Hige smirked. "That didn't last long."

Cheza finally could see them sprinting towards them in the distance, the trees obscuring her view. "They're panicked," she observed. She weakly trotted towards them.

"Cheza, don't!" Kiba shouted. He knew for certain that if there was trouble, he didn't want her anywhere near it.

Toboe, in his headlong chase, nearly crashed into Cheza, grabbing her by the waist, as Tsume approached Kiba.

"They're coming!" Toboe gasped, out of breath.

"Who is coming?" asked Cheza.

"Soldiers. They're-coming!"

"Aw, heck!" hollered Hige.

Kiba stepped towards Tsume, "You tipped them off, didn't you?"

"Kiba-"

"Your running from the pack led them right to us!" He gently pulled Toboe away and stepped in front of Cheza, protecting her.

"Ah, guys, this isn't the time for a fight," Hige prompted. "We need to figure out what to do."

"We split up," declared Kiba. "Tsume, can you divert them away from Cheza?"

Tsume nodded. "That's easy."

"Hige, you serve as a lookout for any that come from a different direction than we expected. If they get close, deal with them."

"Right."

"Toboe, hide in the tree branches. If it gets to the point where it is too much for either of them to handle, I want you to howl. I'll come back and help."

"Yes, Kiba."

"I'm going to protect The Flower Maiden," Kiba glared at Tsume. "I'll get her out of here."

Cheza unexpectedly found beauty that day.

In his human form, Kiba picked up Cheza and seemed to leap as he carried her through the forest. After a few minutes, he set her down. Their gazes locked for a moment before he spoke. "Stay here."

Cheza nodded.

Appearing again as a wolf, Kiba dashed to some thick, tangled growth on the forest floor. Cheza marveled at the gracefulness of his movements. It was dynamic; art, mathematics, and science melded to a point that could only indicate the work of a loving Creator. She did not even flinch when Kiba tackled the hidden predator and tore upon him with the full force of his jaws. She felt safe.

Just like in her dream.

She thought to briefly mention to The Lord, _Father, forgive them, and have mercy on their souls_. Then, faintly, Cheza heard howling. _Oh, no_…she thought.

Just as her heart began to sink, she heard that wonderful Voice again. It came from within her, like a thought, but she knew she was not the source of the idea being conveyed.

"_Go_," the Voice said simply.

Cheza very quietly began to back away. Kiba was running to attack another approaching soldier, and his back was to her. She continued to retreat into the thick of the woods.

It was not long before she garnered attention. To one dumbstruck armed man, she declared, "I am here!" She then added, "God's justice is upon you!"

He charged wildly after her, but found she had vanished the moment he came close to seizing her. He stared in confusion. _It's the trees_, he reasoned. _She hides well with so many around here_. Shrugging, he pulled a slim communicator from his pocket. "I saw it," he told the others.

The reply was immediate: "Let's cut it off, and close in on it."

There were several pockets of fields within the sprawling forest Kiba's pack were called to roam within. Cheza discovered one on her own. There was a dirt road through the forest big enough for vehicles which curved back into the trees when it reached the field. Cheza wondered why. As she walked towards it, she noticed that there was a deep slope, and getting nearer, she could finally see to the bottom of it. It was a ravine.

But she was out in the open. Exposed. Yet she knew she was being asked to stay still.

_Here_? she questioned silently.

The answer came. _Yes. Here._

The troops of Lord Darcia and Orkham already knew of Cheza's general whereabouts, thanks to the soldier who had spotted her moments prior. However, this man who had nearly seized the prize for his master, Darcia, had grown wary of what she could be planning. "It's up to something," he protested to his superior. "It _wants_ us to follow it there. I know it."

The soldier's communicator crackled with an order, "It doesn't matter. Even if the escapee has devised some plan, it's not going to be a match for us or our force. We are expected to press on. That includes you, Pelerdh."

Pelerdh that first thought it was superfluous to pursue her with more than two or so troops, but his commander had assured him that she could be looking for refuge wherever the dregs of her kind remained. The majority of them had been expunged, of course. But if anyone else was eking out an existence away from their perfect empire, they had to be squelched before they banded to form a grass-roots or guerilla counter-movement.

So Pelerdh continued his pursuit. He was told that he himself was enough to believe in. He believed in his own strength, and would use others' to his advantage. It was enough for him.

Cheza could hear the hum of a large engine from somewhere in the distance. She might have also heard voices, though she could not be certain. She could still not discern any shapes or movement yet from her vantage point. Her sense of calm was unflappable.

It was not long before the sound was to her back; there was another military vehicle behind her and the ravine.

_Be still_. She accepted the thought.

She could soon trace the outline of the wide car through the thinning of the trees. She knew it would not take long before they arrived. Presently, it rolled through the blanched grass, and she remained impassive. She could detect their faces, which betrayed no emotion. She did not recognize any of them.

The scenario played out as simply as a child enacting a game with matchbox cars. They saw her in all of her strangeness, and they accelerated. The road was long, and they were just about to brake, and seize the prize before them, when the ground gave from under them.

_Where did the road go? Where did this ditch come from?_ If the people inside the vehicles had been given time to think, these might have been thoughts. Instead, most registered a final word; _Where…?_ before being overcome with panic, then nothingness.

Cheza heard the two impacts, one of shattering glass and scraping metal upon rocks. No one was crying or suffering from what she could hear. She thought she noted the crackle of a fire which had ignited on one of the cars. She thought to turn and appraise the damage herself, but the inner Voice was firm.

_Do not look._

She always responded warmly to that Voice. Considering His Message, she determined that it would not be worth seeing any carnage. Now was the time to think about life.

As she prayed for whatever was left of their souls, and thanked God for her safety, she began to walk, not certain of where Kiba was. She had not gained any sense of direction, but knew that she had not gone so far as he could not find her. She wandered in a diagonal path, until she came upon a rivulet that flowed just before the woods. She climbed upon stones, step by step, until she was able to seat herself upon one of the larger stones in the middle of the stream.

Even in her gratitude, she found herself shaking her head, praying silently, _It will not matter. Kiba will be so angry with this one. I left him when he said to stay. He will not want to be with me anymore._

Still, the thoughts flowed away from her as the current of the stream, and she knew she could wait.

Time was never a reliable factor for Cheza, but in her state of prayer, she began to notice that the position of the sun had shifted slightly in the sky. She thought she could guess. _An hour_, she surmised. She lifted her head, and was startled to see the white wolf looking back at her from the entrance of the forest. The other three wolves were also there, just behind him, appearing in their human form.

Cheza gasped slightly, and hugged her body to herself. She waited until Kiba was ready to speak.

"You lead them away."

"I am sorry."

"You delivered us from them. You kept the pack safe."

There was something inexplicably tender and open about the way he seemed before her. She felt herself relinquishing her defenses. She stood erect upon the stone, straight and confident for the first time in years. She nodded. He smiled slightly, and her arms dropped to her sides.

Slowly, he approached her, wading in the water. His jeans darkened as they grew soaked.

"Kiba!" she admonished. He appeared not to listen.

Finally, when he reached her, he caught her and held her in his arms. She knelt and received him tenderly, lavishing the rarity of affection.

"You are even better than I imagined you would be," he told her. "You are The Flower Maiden."

While being held, she felt his form shifting to wolf. Cheza smiled. She believed she had learned a small component of the dynamics of Heaven.


	4. Chapter 4

In the woods, she was as an interpreter of the living.

Cheza began to recognize again the ebb and flow of life around her. The dazzle of the sunlight, which made her blink, and the chill that fell when night was near. She quietly marveled at the connectedness of all, and offered this as part of the praises her heart would sing to God.

The hothouse flower had been transplanted to the wild. Instead of these new elements hindering her, Kiba began to suspect she would flourish.

Four days after the soldiers' turmoil, Cheza was again thoughtfully collecting materials by the side of a clean brook Hige had found. Bemused, Hige watched her shove bread, a canteen Tsume had given to her, some dried spice from Kiba into her hooded cloak, roll it into a sack, and foisted her pack onto her shoulders.

"What's up?" he called to her.

"We are going to be approaching something."

Toboe appeared as a pup by the rivulet. After his tongue had swiped in a generous portion of water into his waiting mouth, he darted from one end of the creek to another, his paws trotting out a dance of sorts. "Is it good or bad?"

"It is good," she assured them.

Hige thought to nudge Cheza towards the camp, but she was already moving, her gait soft but steady. "So, what is it?" he pursued.

"I do not know."

That seemed to make it Toboe's turn. "How come?"

Cheza smiled. _So many questions!_ she thought silently. "He does not tell me everything, Toboe. And I never know when He is going to speak to me, through word _or_ signal." Her hand casually brushed the ginger-highlighted right side of his coat. "Tsume took you out again last night. How are the hunting lessons coming?"

"Good." After a beat, he added, "Rabbits sure are smart, though. And the deer are real big! We didn't have any of those where I grew up."

"Are you learning, though?"

"Yeah." He offered a decisive nod.

"Then I know we will have enough for everybody."

"At least enough for Hige." Toboe craned his body to spot if Hige had caught the remark, then bolted straight past them.

Hige groaned and chuckled. _Sure_, he reasoned. _Let another few words roll my way. I can handle it._ But the moment after his grin at Cheza faded, he was pursuing Toboe in the hopes of tackling him. Just to save face, of course.

With the five convened and set upon the quest, they pressed on. While Kiba knew directions from the taste of the wind, the plant and wildlife, and the way the ground spoke to him, it was Cheza who could intuit what would be in their path.

She pulled them to into bare brush, insistently leading. It was a mess. Wiry branches protruded from everywhere. It was so entangled, she could not discern what branch belonged to which plant.

Wryly, Cheza remembered when she was a child, and she had hidden herself in a coat rack in a department store. At the time, department stores were still in existence. When she wanted to get out and find her mom again, the cheap wire hangers poked her from every angle. She had finally freed herself, but not before taking down a third of the coats with her.

Similarly, she had sloppily snapped through the enmeshed overgrowth until there was enough space to pass through. She checked her hands. She had only suffered a few cuts.

And she continued, silently, uncertainly. Kiba knew how to keep quiet, as well, but the other three were locked in another spat. Cheza barely heard the yips and grunts between them. The trees had not taken to leaf, yet the forest cover was dense enough that it was dark in the daytime.

Kiba took her hand. "Let me be your eyes here." As they surveyed the area, both could discern a faint glow in the distance. It was the only strong light source to be had, and Cheza realized that she felt unthreatened by it.

Like a radio receiver being tuned, the voices of the other wolves came into focus behind her:

"…We never had t' walk this much when we were in the city!"

"You wanna wait around for them to make a trophy out of your hide then, Porko?"

"Quit hanging on me!"

"Sorry, but you're in the way!"

Cheza interrupted them all. "There!" she exclaimed breathlessly. She pointed towards the origin of the soft light. "That is where we need to be for now."

"That's _Rakuen_?" Toboe murmured innocently.

"That is where we need to stop for now. But it is not Rakuen."

Her muddied perception grew clearer as she neared the light, she ducked branches and skirted past trees with Kiba as she moved. The earthy brown that sheltered the glow was not from trees; there was a small cabin. In her impatience, she strained her eyes to take in more. A weathered but sturdy porch held up the modest house, spreading itself as invitingly as a grandmother's lap.

Finally, a figure-a female figure-pushed open the front door and stepped upon the porch, her arms enfolded. Cheza could finally see that the woman was older than she, perhaps in her late forties, and beautiful in how she carried her imperfections. Her skin held caramel warmth, and her hair was thick. Cheza would have felt self-conscious in her rags if this person was not as personable as she appeared to be.

The woman briefly flashed the palms and the backs of her hands, and pushed her palm forward in a symbol of "stop" when Cheza rolled back her sleeve to do the same.

"My name is Maya," the woman called. "And it's all right; I know who you are."

Beaming, Toboe blitzed to her side. Tsume groaned, "Even now, he wants to be a human's pet."

"It's no wonder she has been kept safe," continued Maya, " with so many strong and brave people looking out for her." She was looking at Toboe as she addressed the last part of her compliment.

"Huh!" Toboe smirked, pleased.

Maya pushed the door back a little further so the interior of the cabin was exposed to them. "This house is here as …a refuge, I guess you could say. It's just really a safe place to stay for those who need it."

Toboe was the first to enter the simple, four room dwelling, but Cheza, and Hige soon mounted the two small stairs to follow him. Cheza turned, and noticed Kiba with his own arms folded, gazing back at her. "Come in with us," Cheza entreated softly.

He slowly shook his head. "I'm a wolf. I don't stay indoors."

"Then stay close. Please."

He nodded.

She smiled a little before she made her way to the entrance. She had to brush past Tsume in order to get through the doorpost. She offered him a hopeful little glance before slipping into the home.

In the days he had spent by her, he had noticed her gentleness and her discretion. She was guided each day by the strength of an inner conviction, a courage that was not her own. She was like a witness who had no need of an audience.

Even as he accepted all of those attributes, the thoughts would return, as markedly as someone's voice.

_You know, she will never forgive you for it._

Tsume inhaled quickly.

_You won't be trusted…And you can't build anything with that. It would be easier if you just walked away._

He made a conscious effort to force the thoughts from his mind. He wasn't willing to give up. Not yet. He silently reasoned that if Cheza never forgave him for doubting her, he would deal with it.

He just wouldn't look at her.

Still in his human form, Tsume cleared his throat and walked into the house.

The layout of the sparse and simple home was open. It was ideal for companionship, but it served as a poor choice for anyone who enjoyed privacy. The kitchen was to the back; the small dining room table the only divider between that space and the living room.

Cheza was reminded of her cell. She had been startled by the stark openness of the outside world. Now, she was called to readjust to this enclosure. She leaned by the door, her right hand still clutching the knob.

_Will I be able to leave?_ she thought incongruously. Her eyes nervously skirted the sum of the space.

Maya sat by the table patiently. Toboe had already decided to appear as a wolf, and was curled by her feet. Cheza saw that her skin was like chocolate and amber in the sun. Maya smiled as if she expected nothing. She was like someone's mother. Maybe it was this one's own. Cheza released the door handle.

"Tell me," Maya considered, "how many humans like us have you found since you came to your flower?"

"N-no one," Cheza supplied.

Maya marveled, "Then there must be so much you have yet to understand. Do you know that now there are travelers on their way to build new cities, travelers all over the world?"

The young woman shook her head.

"Some of them are coming from this land, too. That is you, Cheza. You are one of several. Some of them have stayed in this refuge, too."

"Why do you not follow?"

"I have to stay for now, and give them a place to rest. When my time for this is over, I'll leave."

Cheza sat on the floor across from Hige. Maya stood from her place at the table and pulled open a cabinet. Presently, she produced gently worn blankets, some form of glycerin soap, and began stacking the table with her discoveries.

Thankfulness forced an unspoken message from this one's mind to her Creator. _You give and You give. There are people, my own kind, to be met. The way she is…is familiar to me. I do not know from where._

Cheza hoisted herself up, and nudged Hige on her way to Maya. She glanced over to Tsume, as well, who understood and rose to help.

She was quietly observing the way in which Maya pushed food around her plate with the tin fork, like a hockey player with a puck back when that still existed. Finally, she would pin her prized egg piece to the side before scooping it towards her mouth. Cheza tried to imitate the way in which Maya was holding her fork, but was knew she was being awkward. It had been a long time since anyone had given her utensils with a meal.

Maya barely seemed to notice as the food wobbled past Cheza's lips. Maya had set kibble seasoned with broth in bowls for the wolves, and to The Flower Maiden's surprise, even Tsume took some.

As Cheza gazed at Maya from across the table, she noticed the elder's face hardening in concern. Cheza dropped her fork against her plate.

"Have soldiers come after you, Cheza?"

Cheza nodded.

"We've had our run-ins, even before Cheza showed up," Hige supplied from the floor, the only one remaining to appear as human.

Maya sighed before firmly adding, "They won't come for you here. I hope you understand that. It's just-do you even know why they're doing it?"

"I do. I embarrassed them by escaping. They want me back."

"Ohhh, honey! Do you think they would really go through all that trouble if that was the only reason? This isn't just about saving face for a failing power."

"What do you know about it?" Tsume quietly challenged.

"Your name is Tsume, right? Well, Tsume, there's an old man wandering through the cities now reading lines from an old book he swiped off a Noble. He says it's _The Book of the Moon_."

Hige and Tsume exchanged uneasy glances. Toboe placed his muzzle in Cheza's lap.

Cheza didn't like all the hints and innuendoes Maya was spinning. "Please, Maya, what does that have to do with us?"

"It's a book that most of those Nobles believe in. Some of it may be true, but why invest in anything less than the pure Truth? The Nobles have enough problems at the moment, so this man, Yaiden, seems to have gotten away with saying a lot. He drinks so much, I've heard, that people usually think he's too drunk to be saying anything real.

"So this book…It's about things that haven't happened yet. I think their leader promised them a Paradise, too. Because in _The_ _Book of the Moon, _it says that Paradise is a perfect moment in time that's frozen forever. That way, it can be touched, handled, or taken for or from somebody."

"It is not like that. God's Realm is beyond time," explained Cheza.

Maya stood and briskly approached Cheza. She caught Cheza's dirt-caked and scabbed hands in her own warm ones. "I know you're smart," Maya appealed. "Open your eyes, girl! The Nobles can't have that, can they? They don't _want_ it. They only have the here and now."

Maya looked up from her exchange with Cheza, finally acknowledging the wolves. Reluctantly, she continued to them, "You have a name for her. What have you been calling Cheza?"

"Calling her?" Toboe spoke up. "She's the Flower Maiden."

"Kiba called this one-I mean, _me_-that. I do not know why," Cheza quietly concurred.

"That's the other part of the book everyone who's seen it mentions. The Flower Maiden is the key to unlocking Paradise. Where-ever you've been, I bet you're still alive because they wanted to use you."

"Paradise has nothing to do with me!" this one shouted. "I am nothing; they told me so. I have no power."

"Heaven has its own power." The conversation halted. The humans and wolves stopped and listened to the speaker. It was Toboe. "It's real! I've seen it."

"Yeah, Toboe." Tsume rose and stared down Maya. The discussion was over. "We know."

Maya nervously fidgeted, lacing her fingers and pulling them apart. "Hey, Cheza. Are you done? Why don't you follow me? I'll show you where the washroom is."

Cheza noticed the three; Toboe with his head cocked to the side, Hige with his arms crossed, frowning, and Tsume, leaning against the wall, looking as if he were waiting for something.

"Sure," Cheza finally nodded. The warm hand was back on her shoulder, and she felt herself being led to a small door.

Kiba conceived new dreams of unity.

Before sleep overtook him, there was another thought besides Paradise he indulged. On the day he wandered Freeze City, his limbs struggling to adhere to his commands to move, the desire, like an instinct, was closer to him than his own surroundings seemed to be. Later, when his own kind had attacked him, he dragged his beaten body, tender and aching with every movement, into an alleyway. He curled into a fetal position, and there, the almost palpable need returned.

He wanted a connection with someone. His senses yearned for the immediacy of a person, not only a goal. But then, he recognized that part of Paradise was in being together with other people through God.

The humans though The Nobles had come up with their own plan for union on Earth. Kiba had decided that he did not care about what they did, but the people's decision encroached his own way of living, and limited his own choices. They, too, had chosen togetherness, but it was a connection without a true sense of pride or self. When the people were promised to be taken care of, most listened, and they lost their identity in the process.

He tried to imagine a new world, and his role within it, and fell short. To be free…to truly live. That would be enough.

His thoughts always drifted back to Cheza. She was growing stronger every day. Even her movements and her demeanor seemed more like that of a person's.

He lifted his head. The moon's light was rich. As he basked, he sensed its light was fortifying his muscles, bolstering him for the journey ahead. But there was another glow from the cabin where Cheza slept.

The soft, invitational incandescence of a lamp beckoned to him. He followed its source, and found himself in the path of light cast from the cabin's window. As he renewed promises each day, he knew he was guided by something greater than even his own instincts now.

He recalled his promise to Cheza. As he rested his body near the wooden house, he smelled Lunar Flowers again.

Cheza felt newly anointed. Her skin no longer itched. She had used water from the rain barrel to help draw a bath for herself. She had been given the glycerin soap to clean herself, and as she plied the opaque material to her flesh, she saw the years of confusion and abuse caked in the grime of her body begin to slide off.

Maya mixed soap with olive oil as a shampoo for Cheza, and had laid out a bottle of a mixture of olive and sesame oils to rub on her skin after she was finished bathing. She complied with Maya's instructions, then turned to the tub to survey the damage.

It was disgusting. She could have dumped the silt from the streams she had seen into the tub, and it would have nearly appeared to be the same thing. Maybe cleaner. "Never again," she told herself aloud. With plenty of soap remaining, she set about the task of scrubbing the tub.

Cheza finally emerged with a clean body and a clean set of clothing.

"Hi, Cheza!" Toboe called.

Cheza smiled, "Hello, Toboe."

"You smell real nice."

"Thank you."

Hige grinned, as well. "You smell like bread. Stop making me hungry."

Cheza laughed.

"You were in there for a while," Tsume reminded her.

"I had the clean the tub after all that," she added sheepishly. "It was pretty bad."

Maya had been sitting upon the couch, scrawling in what appeared to be a journal. At Cheza's declaration, she dropped what she had in her hands. "You didn't have to do that!" she exclaimed.

"It is fine, Maya," Cheza reassured her. She suddenly directed the wattage of her smile to her. "We will have to leave soon, and yet there is so much more that is needed to be said."

"Then at least let me show you something down the hall."

Cheza looked to the wolves for approbation.

"It's up to you," Hige replied.

"Can we go soon?" Toboe inquired.

"Quiet, Runt," muttered Tsume.

"Okay," said Cheza to Maya.

Across the hall from the tiny washroom was a closet. On the left side were situated some canned goods, a flashlight, and some baking oils. On the right side there were extra blankets. Maya lifted one of the blankets and produced a small-framed picture. She turned it so Cheza could see.

It was The Woman she had envisioned before. She herself seemed delicate like a rose, and was pregnant; pregnant with The Lord. She was clothed in all of the stars of the sky.

"It is _Her_!" Cheza exclaimed joyously.

"Yes," Maya agreed, "it's a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe. This is a copy of the image that was left on a tilma."

"Maya? I want you to know that I am not afraid. I am sorry about yesterday."

"I knew you were coming, and it wasn't because of that stupid book. Do you know what the word _Guadalupe_ means? It's Spanish for 'Wolf's Creek.'"

"Wolf's Creek?"

"This day was planned a long time ago. There are good people left, and there are priests and nuns still here, who are all coming out of hiding."

Cheza gawped. "Are there really?"

Maya laughed. "Of course! We wouldn't get very far in our covenant without them." She smiled, and pulled out another article for Cheza to see. It was The Bible.

"Maya," Cheza eyes widened in both amazement and shock. She cautioned, "to even _have_ that…they would jail you. You would be killed!"

"They won't find me here," she shrugged. "Even if they did, it wouldn't matter. They aren't bigger than God."

"There is something else, too." Cheza paused, then questioned, "When were you going to tell me?"

Maya shook her head lightly, still happy. "What do you-" But something in Cheza's unmoved mien struck her. She suddenly understood. Maya sighed, "I wasn't."

"It is not right! I cannot just leave you like this!"

"You do have to go. You have to do just what God has called you to." Cheza wanted to plead for her, but Maya's reassuring voice continued, "Look, my sickness hasn't even spread yet, and there will be more people coming along in the next couple of days. There are always more people to check up on me. A couple of them have even been doctors!"

"But when you die-"

"_If_ I die, it will be when He wills it." Maya drew Cheza close, and confided to her, "It is enough to see this new generation starting to rebuild. It's more than enough for me."

This was a resolve that Cheza had never seen before. It was more than she could comprehend. She needed to make a promise to her. She looked at the woman firmly and declared, "If no one brings you to Rakuen, I will come back for you myself after everything is over."

She was packed and ready to go. The wolves were before her. The sun was searingly bright, to the point where multi-colored dots skirted her range of vision. She was dizzy, but she was making haste to continue. She suddenly had a future. Maybe Maya did on Earth, as well.

Surprised, she found Kiba in his true wolf form. She had not even heard him approaching. "You stayed nearby," she remarked.

"You asked me to."

"Was it _only_ because you were asked?" Cheza archly wondered. Though he did not respond with human expression, she knew he was beaming at her. She and the wolves clambered down the steps while Maya smoothed her hands upon her jeans. Quietly, the flower continued, "I was explained many things. We are still under Our Lady's protection. But the soldiers and The Nobles are going to keep chasing us."

Kiba raised his head. "Then we'll be ready for them."


	5. The Book of Blue

_Blessed are they who wash their robes so as to have the right to the tree of life and enter the city through its gates. Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the unchaste, the murderers, the idol-worshippers, and all who love and practice deceit. Revelations 22: 14-15_

Like so many of her time, Cheza's exposure to life was as a small bud cowering to Winter's acrid sting. It was only under the radiance of love that she was drawn outside of herself. There were many more prisons in which to escape, but she wanted be free of them all. Life in its succession of days was an ever-unfurling bloom. The insights each reveal brought to Cheza were totally refreshing.

Perhaps she was a flower, after all.

She could find Kiba most nights at the highest summit near their encampment. In his fey human form, he would lie on his back and take in the wan glow of both the moon and the stars. Hige would affably join him on most nights. Knowing the habits of the two, Cheza absconded from the company of Toboe and Tsume one evening of what had been known as the middle of March, and climbed the hill to Kiba-by herelf.

Cheza observed the reverence of both Hige and Kiba to the twilight. She had exerted herself in her travels all day, and wanted then to sink back into something soft to support her muscles and joints. Yet as she positioned herself between the wolves, she found the grassless ground to be hard and unyielding.

Hige was chattering to Kiba as Cheza tried to sprawl next to them. "Yeah, it figures. They always make it too easy."

"What were you discussing just now?" Cheza wondered.

"Everything," murmured Hige. "I guess."

Kiba reached for her, so his arm could offer her warmth. The temperatures still dropped at night, and Kiba had begun sharing even his warmth with her from the nights he had observed her shivering in her sleep.

The firmament seemed to be framed by the branches surrounding their view. All was idyllic and still. After a few minutes of taking in the scene in silence, Cheza spoke. "I want to know."  
"Yes, Cheza?" asked Kiba.

But she turned to Hige instead. "I know the reason why everyone is here. Except for you. Why did you decide to come with us?"

"Oh. Huh!" chuckled Hige. Then he eagerly explained, "A man needs a sense of adventure…He needs romance. It's part of life."

Cheza was on her side, looking straight across to the autumn shades of Hige's eyes, still glowing through the darkness. "You are coming for _that_?" She considered all of the risks and sacrifices they had made together to journey to Rakuen. His words seemed insufficient.

"From the time that Kiba came into the city, I could smell something new about him. It was kinda interesting. So, I have followed these scents ever since."

"It has not been dull," observed Cheza.

"Never was." Kiba concurred.

A gust of wind suddenly broke free that stirred the forest and brushed across Cheza's face. The giant _whoosh_ing noise reminded her of something.

_Of…_

_ Of what?_

The note, like a bottle someone blew across, sounded the same as the wind in the field near hear house when she was little. There was a clothesline, she remembered. Towels and sheets would snap in the breeze. As the veil of forgetfulness was lifted, she saw a woman with long red hair, and another older lady in a grey bun.

Cheza could churn no more impressions from her mind. She was left in the stillness of the evening, but by the warmth of Kiba's "hand", she knew she was not alienated. The simple chatter between him and Hige was hers to join if she so wanted.

"What do you make of the weather patterns here?"

"It won't amount to much if the winds keep moving the clouds in the opposite direction of where we are going. If not, we'll have some problems moving forward."

The topics then veered to the regional game (Rabbits would be abundant, according to Hige.), and the insights they were able to gain from their quiet observations of each of the towns they had sojourned. Cheza was being lulled into a soporific state, but instead she fought the urge to fall asleep, and pushed herself into a standing position.

"It is late. I should check on the others, say my prayers, and go to sleep."

"You were awful quiet," Hige observed.

Kiba had seen her slip into herself, as though recalling something distant to her now. "Let her be, Hige," he admonished the other wolf.

As Cheza eased her way down the hill, she considered the two figures of her memory, and wondered where the red-headed young woman was now.

Rease felt nearly sick with glee.

He was fast following the one Noble who had not let slip his sense of power; his means of authority. Rease's painstaking efforts at ingratiation had yielded rewards. He had been invited to Lord Darcia's Keep on a number of occasions, though he would not indulge in its sensual pleasures. It would be as to pluck the fruit before the time of harvest.

He enjoyed the convenience of his superior clearing the path to the future, while Rease brought up the rear. He could just glimpse the horizon now, as his predecessors had shown the way. He reasoned that second in command was a good place to be. Too much power would be messy for him. It would, in turn, involve too much work.

Lord Darcia was unequivocally the natural successor of their recently deceased leader. Few even knew of his passing; it was a well-guarded fact among The Nobles. While the feuding and slaughtering between the commoners was inevitable, Lord Orkham had involved himself too much in their affairs. To touch the soot of the common was to dull your own luster. The once super-man was no longer a true rival of Darcia's.

Lady Jaguara was another matter. Her Keep was renowned for its elaborate and exhaustive hedonistic rituals. They far surpassed Lord Darcia's. Yet overindulgence of the senses made vigilance nearly impossible. Now was the time to be alert, and calculating. To wield superiority involved planning. One would require all of his active faculties. And with one's vision blurred, one could never know if the guest was holding a vial of liquor, or a dagger.

Weakness was a disgusting liability to show to anyone. And Lord Darcia's weakness was Harmona.

If someone was to incur too much money for medical support in the land, or could no longer serve as a product member of the community, he or she was humanely euthanized. However, it was ultimately The Nobles who made whatever law they felt was best for all. And for Darcia, no measure was too extreme to sustain his love and keep her among the living.

But love-that kind of love-would merely serve as a distraction to the goal which was nearly within their grasp: the renewal of The Earth. Lord Darcia believed that the escaped prisoner named Cheza was somehow a key in unlocking a Paradise for the elect few. There were times that The Nobles were full of conflicting information. Rease would not speculate over Paradise, but he believed in what he saw, and what greater power did his master want than assuming control over the best and the strongest who endured this time of trial?

Let Darcia have his Cheza, and even his Harmona, Rease reasoned. Soon, it would be his turn to grasp whatever he wanted.

As Rease gloated, an orange light flashed by his desk. Someone wished to enter his quiet, efficient office. Rease pressed a button, and a man in his mid-forties entered. He was older than Rease, but of a lower rank. Rease strained, and failed, to recall his name. No matter.

"Hail to Lord Darcia, and to our master," the commander greeted him hollowly.

"Very good. What word have you?"

"I have documents, sir, that are pending approval of Lord Darcia."

Rease leaned across his desk to the commander. "Have you read the inscription by the door? Do you know that I am not Lord Darcia?"

"They will need your signature, too, sir."

"Then leave them. If that is all, then you are free to go."

"By your word, sir." The commander left an acre's worth of paper, bowed slightly, and brusquely strode out the door.

Rease perused the first of many documents. At the bottom, he signed his name. Then, in carefully practiced hand, he forged Lord Darcia's signature.

Cheza enjoyed the way the light seemed to bounce off her dress. The gently-used hand-me-down was a present from one of the proprietors of another safe house. No one, not even Tsume, dared to mention the practicality of wearing a dress while hiking through the woods. Tsume noted the cheerful gait, saw her responsiveness, her smiles, and thought it better to refrain from remarking on it. Thus, with her airy dress, and solid hiking boots, she was vested like a hippie at a weekend-long music festival.

If only she had known what either of those things were.

She ran up behind Toboe, and practically caught him in an embrace. "Hey!" she exclaimed, hooking her arm through his.

"Oh. Hi."

"You were twitching in your sleep all night. I noticed."

"Oh!" His face suddenly flushed. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" she smiled. "Were you dreaming again?"

He nodded.

"Do you want to tell me about it?" she pursued.

"We were all at a huge banquet hall. But the master of the hall was taking care of us and stuff. Like he was the servant, not the master. And…" In his excitement, Toboe paused to collect his flurry of thoughts. "He said we're supposed to do what he was doing."

"That is a great little secret you were given. Do you believe him?"

"Yeah! I do."

The front of the pack was lead by Kiba, Hige, and Tsume. They were approaching an area where the growth became sparser. They wove around rocks and shrubs as seamlessly as speed skaters around cones. To their left, the base of a ravine was growing visible. It was shaded terra cotta like the plates in Maya's kitchen.

Cheza began to wonder if she would have to encounter the man-occupied cities as everyone else in the pack had. She began to step forward, but a solid weight around her arm caused her to lurch back.

She turned her head in the direction of the problem. Toboe still had his "arm" linked with hers. He was staring straight, seemingly at nothing. His brow was furrowed. His teeth had begun to gnaw upon his own lower lip.

"Hey," she called, puzzled. "Tobie?"

He remained unmoved. He did not seem to register her voice.

Cheza stood in front of him, her gaze fixed into his empty stare. She took him by the shoulders and gently shook him.

"The birds," he mumbled.

"_Birds_?" Cheza echoed, wondering if she had heard him correctly.

"They're laughing at us."

Just as he finished speaking, she heard the cawing of crows. She glanced upward. Suddenly, a dark-winged bird appeared, high above the trees, then another swooped across the sky, joining the first. Then a third materialized, seemingly out of nowhere. They began to circle, still cawing, their cries indecipherable to Cheza.

Toboe growled.

Cheza gasped. She had never seen any aggression in the pup before. "Toboe!" she exclaimed, now more plaintively.

Toboe's posture relaxed. He looked upon Cheza with recognition. "They said we're fools for staying on the ground. Something's coming."

Cheza looked to the other wolves. Kiba was already trotting back to Toboe. Before he spoke, she caught him briefly appraising the shaken pup. His voice was as resolute as dawn. "Toboe . It's all right now."

"They're laughing. Make them stop."

"Toboe, it doesn't matter. We've been heading in this direction for a reason. We're going to take refuge in those caves over there." Kiba did not need to gesture to them, for it was easily detectable even to Cheza that caves were etched into the cliffs. He continued, "When it's over, we'll move on."

"Then you know what is going to happen," Cheza pursued.

"Let's get up there."

"_Kiba_._"_ Cheza's insistence was like a command. It startled everyone.

Tsume's gaze warily combed through the forest before he added, "We shouldn't keep secrets between us in this pack."

"I can't say it. You'll have to see for yourself."

No one thought of a retort. After an awkward moment of silence, the wolves began to shuffle forward, with Tsume and Hige nudging Toboe along.

"Cheza," Kiba beckoned. Her silence reminded Kiba of loneliness. "I'm asking for your trust again." He dared to reach and touch the side of her face. Wordlessly, she clasped the "hand" he had given her, and walked alongside him.

Hige had observed the events in wonder. But soon, his sense of restraint would fail him. As their movements fell into their accustomed rhythm, he blurted, "The way you act sometimes is weird, Kiba. Like, how're we supposed to know what to do half the time, if you won't even tell us what this is ab"-

A screech was emitted from somewhere above. Cheza had time to look above, to wonder how the birds' cries had grown so high-pitched. But the hissing and squealing quickly grew, as if a hundred rats were in the grips of death. The dead forest began to resound with the sizzling squeaks, until a flaming rock the size of a beach ball seemed to dislodge itself from the sun, and hurled itself downward, landing just behind Cheza and the wolves.

The fire it gave crackled invitingly, consuming the white-bleached grass. Everyone gawped for a moment; at each other, then at the smoldering mess. The rock had left a three-foot wide crater from where it had crashed. Dazed, Cheza felt herself being lifted. Kiba had already picked her up. "Run," he gasped. He pointed to a cave's entrance well within their reach. "There."

She heard the scuffle of paws against the dirt, and Kiba's voice, shouting, "Go!" The sky boomed. The ground trembled. They ran, Cheza still secure against Kiba's chest. They were close to their refuge. Cheza spotted one black and burning mound fall to the right of them, another right behind them. Finally, they split in a "V" formation as one careened directly in front of them. Toboe tripped, but Tsume had noticed, and paused long enough to yank the pup back on to his feet. The scent of sulfur began to make Cheza and Hige nauseous.

The wide black mouth of the cave greeted them like a glutton on his next binge. As Cheza clambered out of Kiba's arms, she noticed it was big enough for everyone to comfortably stand. The floor was smooth enough for Cheza to sit if she wished, but it afforded little else. She could see nothing staring into the cave's depths, but the entrance afforded enough light for her to determine what this new environment was like. She thought the walls were like dried-out pottery clay. A few bats blithely hung from the ceiling.

Hige was the one who appeared the most shaken. One "hand" was rested on the top of his head as he continued to breathe, "What was _that_?" He shook his head. "What _was_ that?"

Tsume groaned. "Just shut up, all right?"

"Well, what the Hell _was_ that?" Hige insisted.

"The sky is falling," mused Toboe, who continued to stare out at the scene with wide, inquisitive eyes.

"I do not think it is that," replied Cheza. "I read somewhere once that rocks from the sky are called meteors. They would have come from beyond our sky. I think they are reacting to the pollution in the air."

Tsume passed an accusatory glare to Cheza. His body tensed, as though we were waiting for a break in the fire shower to hunt down whoever was responsible for imposing an inconvenience.

As he leaned against the wall, Kiba asked, "Is everyone alright?"

"Yeah," Hige nodded, his nerves beginning to settle.

The _booms_ of the explosions ate whatever silence or tranquility could have existed in that enclosed space. The tremors from the impact rattled the stones around them. Like the day at the creek, like the day they had met, Kiba was gazing across the distance at Cheza. Cheza looked back at him. In that moment, they spoke. They understood.

Cheza was roused from her sleep.

_Howling_, she recognized as she slowly came to. She quickly glanced through the cavern. By the light of the afternoon, she saw that all of the wolves were accounted for, dozing in various positions. _When did this one fall asleep?_ she wondered.

She felt relaxed and cushioned. As she stood, she realized that she had slept against Hige. She smiled tenderly. In the distance, the thudding of intrusive rocks against the ground continued. She could see from peering out of the cave that branches had snapped, but no trees seemed to have been felled.

A voice cut through the rumbling Earth. It was a clear, sharp howl of a wolf. It seemed to carry both longing and a vision for more. Cheza looked to her pack for a reaction, but their sleep was nearly spell-like.

A sentence formed in her mind, though she recognized that she was not the author of it: _Go to her_.

Cheza ran her hands along the side of the cave for support as she walked forward. Awkwardly lunging, she stepped over the sprawled Tsume to reach the cave's mouth. She could see as she moved the eerie grey half-light of the day just before dawn. The tremors and fireballs seemed to have lapsed. She moved from her enclosure, and out to survey the woods.

The crows had returned. She regarded them, though they spoke to each other, and seemed to ignore her entirely. It was almost imperceptible at first; she thought she was imagining another sound. Yet it grew stronger as she moved. It was the soft tweeting of finches.

She smiled. _Could God grant another Spring?_ she conjectured. _Will He, even when nothing else holds together or makes sense anymore?_

The baying of a wolf, sweet with sadness, like tapping for maple syrup on a cold day in March, resumed. Cheza still could not spot anyone, but hoped her instincts would guide her. Thunder echoed again in the distance. The ground only trembled slightly, and did not faze Cheza.

Something collided with her. On the ground, unharmed, Cheza looked up. Kiba in his human form was on top of her.

"Kiba!"- She nearly.

"Stay down!"

"Please," she sighed. "Let me up."

Kiba remained impassive. "Cheza, look at the fire. It isn't safe to keep moving."

"Did you not hear her? Let me go to her!"

Kiba was confused. _Would the Flower Maiden really make an obvious mistake?_ he thought. "Hey." He made eye contact with her in the dim light of morning. He shook his head. "It's a dog."

"_No_." She struggled against him. "She is one of us."

"When we were hunted by that man, Yaiden, a dog who howled like that was with him."

Cheza considered this. "Are you certain it was a dog you saw?"

Kiba started. He remembered how much she mimicked him, and yet there was no recognition in her cold blue eyes when she called for Yaiden. He couldn't be certain.

"We can find her," Kiba persuaded Cheza. "But not like this. We can't risk having anything happening to you." His mouth was by her ear. "We'll find her when the danger passes."

Cheza stopped squirming in his grasp. Another tremor rattled the branches around them. Kiba's body shielded her own, she realized. After a pause, he spoke again: "When I was a pup, my brothers and sisters in the pack used to go exploring. We'd each go our separate directions, and when we'd regroup, we'd tell each other the favorite places we'd seen." Kiba glanced at the activity in the sky before continuing, "What's been your favorite place you have seen, Cheza?"

Cheza could barely recall her old life anymore. She was alive, yet she was being crushed by a wolf on the floor of a forest for the sake of her faith. And she did not even possess memories of being in a Church. "The river where you found me waiting that day."

Kiba nearly melted when he heard this. He lowered his head so Cheza could not notice his pleased embarrassment. Then, almost to himself, he said, "Lunar flowers. The time I saw lunar flowers."

"There is no such thing! You made it up."

"There is. When I was a pup, I found a field full of them. It was night, and they were blooming by the light of the full moon."

She tested him. "What color were they?"

"The color of the moon."

Cheza craned her neck from the shelter of Kiba's arms. The sky had been torn, and streaks of a glowing red scaled from the top of the atmosphere to what seemed to be the ground. It looked as if pieces of reality were being ripped away from the firmaments, and a new existence was bleeding through. As she watched, Cheza remembered to place herself in an attitude of trust, and reminded Kiba that it was good for him to do the same. It was that morning that those with eyes to see could discern the world was going to be taken back, and reborn.

Blue Yaiden believed she was alone.

The thugs from the city had managed to separate her from Pops during a scuffle. It used to be that Pops could drink his fill of the magic water that made him forget. Then he would mutter about the wolves and of Paradise, and no one listened. They would ignore him as he mumbled into the wooden floor of the bars, blowing the sawdust across the room with his breath.

Now there were no rules. There was no code of conduct amongst anyone. When no one looked after anyone anymore, people looked after themselves, and their own best interests. The humans sought only what they wanted, and did not care who or what it impacted.

The strong began to prey upon the weak, and the weak would take revenge when they had devised a cunning enough means to do so. On and on it went in waves. The cries Blue heard at night were like the yelps and whimpers of dogs. The number of humans in the city was slowly dwindling, but their voices still filled the air with dissonance.

Since the night Blue had dreamed of the girl with the rose-colored cloak, she was able to appear as a human to everyone's eyes. But neither form guaranteed her any security. She could not remain in the city, she knew, but as she looked towards the empty woods, and thought about the wastelands that lay beyond them, she felt uneasy about her options for survival.

_I'm trapped_, she thought, and tried not to choke up with that admission.

Unsure of what else to do, she slunk to a dark and unoccupied alleyway where she hoped no one would pay attention to her. She took on the appearance of a human, but kept her head up, eyes open and alert, and nearly posed her mouth in a snarl. As she thought of that oddly innocent girl, she waited to devise a new plan.

She waited.

Rease was buried neck deep in a report summarizing the activity within two towns of their city-state. He glanced up. The door had opened, and he had not even realized it.

As he jolted upward, he questioned, _Who could have possibly overridden the clearance code?-_

Dressed in a simple black cape, he noticed Lord Darcia was standing over him.

"My lord," he flummoxed, scrambling to his feet.

Darcia ignored his marionette jerkings of motion. His range of vision was poised somewhere over Rease's head, as though he were distracted by something. "What do we know about the cities, Rease?"

"They're failing, sir, as you predicted."

"All of them?"

"No, not all." Rease followed Darcia's gaze nervously, then he composed himself. "Some are holding out longer. But all of them seem to show the same signs of weakness. A pattern is there, my lord."

"I would normally congratulate you on your sloth. Taking credit when someone else has labored shows cunning. But a mistake was made."

Rease stood erect. "I don't know what you're talking about, sir."

Darcia no longer seemed distracted. "It is foolish when you take it away from someone more powerful than you," he hissed.

"My lord, I have done nothing but stand by your side in all of your decisions."

Rease could not reason through what he encountered next. He blinked. Lord Darcia was not there anymore. What he saw in his stead was a massive, hulking creature, with a form like that of a fabled wolf. With his steely joints and a spine bound like the tracks of a locomotive, he stood at nearly the same height as he. His teeth were bared like daggers.

His eye glowed like a furnace. Rease began to wonder how his yellowing, sickly eye could glow, but his thoughts were quickly interrupted.

Rease had no time to run. The snarling, salivating creature was upon him. And just before he gasped to scream, he heard the words:

_"You are not worthy of Paradise."_


	6. Chapter 6

_By faith we understand that the universe was ordered by the word of God, so that what is visible came into being through the invisible…All these died in faith. They did not receive what had been promised but saw it and greeted it from afar and acknowledged themselves to be strangers and aliens on earth, for those who speak thus show that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of land from which they had come, they would have had the opportunity to return. But now they desire a better homeland, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Hebrews 11: 3, 13-16_

Cheza had experience in remaining still while forces out of her control grappled outside. The others did not. Kiba dreaded the hours of bickering he would have to listen to from his pack, but a relative silence reigned both within the caved-out shelter as well as outside of it. The aftermath of the disaster had instilled a forced quietude amongst those in the natural world. In that moment, almost unremarkably, grace has been spilled over them in abundance.

This shift in behavior was lead, curiously enough, by Tsume. The lives within a now-departed pack, their faces, all of their traits, flickered before him in his mind. He saw himself among them, and recognized a desire for forgiveness in himself.

_The moon is full…_

_ That path is steep. I traveled upon it two sun's ago…_

_ We'll have pups again soon. This pack will be full of growth and happiness…_

_ Tsume, come with us!..._

_ Why are you so glum? Why are you so serious?..._

"I can," he gasped silently to himself as he watched water drip from a stalactite. "I'll accept what He gave me and reject the rest." When he peered back into the caverns of his own past, those faces and voices no longer held gaunt shadows or derisive undertones.

The slowly dripping water collected in a hollow-out basin next to him. He had realized that the pooling water did not hold the rank, sulfuric aroma of any of the water outside. Remembering Cheza's obiter of how germs were passed, he lowered his palm, not his face, into the pool, making contact with the cool water. He was refreshed and at ease, more than he would have admitted. He rose, and with his "hand" still sopping, he sought out Toboe to flick the water in his face.

From her spot at the entrance of the cave, Cheza turned, smiling as she overheard chuckles between Tsume and Toboe. The pair were so rowdy, it was difficult to discern which the two was the pup.

Seized with impulsivity, the girl walked across the opening of the cave and caught Kiba in a side embrace. She quickly withdrew, but still clutched his hand. She focused the radiance she felt straight towards her brave liberator. She finally, happily volunteered, "The falling flames are gone for good. We will not have any problems with them anymore."

"But that isn't the end of our hurdles." His words were still delivered tenderly. Then, he observed, "And you haven't left here yet, or asked us to."

"I think there will be a pause to it before anything else comes over Earth."

"You feel safe."

"Of course!"

Kiba looked out, but Cheza still caught it. The shift in his features meant he wanted to broach a seldom-mentioned subject: himself.

He had indeed caught some of Cheza's dazzle as he began to speak animatedly, "I came to know a native tribe once. They would bury their dead in caves."

"What?" started Cheza.

"Not near here," Kiba nodded, "but that's what they did. They thought that after life they would descend below the Earth, not ascend. They thought that their next life was still connected to the land."

After a moment, Cheza supplied, "I do not know if I believe all of what you have said. I do not know _where_ our Heaven is. But I do believe that there exists a chasm between us and those who have gone before us. I believe it is a state… Our Shepherd guides us to it."

Kiba now faced her directly. "They called these places _kivas_."

"Wait-like you?"

"It sounds alike. Ki-_va_, not Ki-_ba_, like me." He added, "They would say to me, laughing, 'It's no wonder you chase the things you haven't found. You are after the things beyond yourself.'"

"You are. And every day, there is more to be found. In us, through our pack, through God's Grace, and around us." Cheza was already gesturing to leave. She craned her arms above her head, stretching hurriedly. Then, she said, "It would be good to find the other wolf before the world is again bruised."

Kiba crossed his arms, waited.

"If she opens herself to God, He will keep her safe, for sure," Cheza asserted. "But finding her before disaster would go a long way to help her trust her instincts, and us."

"I lead the pack, but you know the way. I follow you." Suddenly, he called out, "Toboe!"

Toboe obligingly left Tsume's side and trotted forward.

"We should get more food, and our supplies are low."

"I can hunt!" Toboe grinned eagerly.

"Is there game here?" wondered Cheza.

"Mice, small animals," Kiba returned.

The information startled her. "Mice…?" Still, she nodded, knowing she should be thankful for whatever came to her.

_What, are mice not good enough for the little princess? _Tsume wanted to snap. But he immediately remembered himself and held back from taking aim at her.

"Chez?" Hige's voice reached Cheza from his place far behind the other wolves. "This other girl-do you think she's okay?"

"She is safe, I am sure. But I know anybody in hiding would love the chance for escape and to find her own kind." Hige budged himself off his haunches and ambled forward. Cheza remarked, "You have been so quiet, friend!"

"Been thinkin'. If ya don't mind, can I join y' guys? Ya don't know what's out there in those towns and cities. I do. It could take more than one of us t' bring her back."

"Sure," Kiba smiled.

In turn, Cheza also regarded him warmly, nodding, her lips upturned just slightly. "Does that mean we are all getting out of this dank little shelter of ours for now and getting some air?"

"Kiba, I'll stay behind and keep guard here," offered Tsume. If Cheza was truly after the same half-wolf he had had his ugly brush with earlier, she would be afraid of him.

_Scared like a dog_, he considered, but then rejected that thought.

Nasty or not, she would not want to see him. _No big loss._

Half mumbled, Tsume turned away and said, "Our Lady's Protection on you."

Cheza caught it. Before she could reflect on his change in attitude or respond to it, Kiba escorted her away.

Peace still resided soundly in Cheza.

If Hige cracked a joke, she could laugh. Her contentment did not seem reliant on circumstance. Still, she knew that as she approached a land usurped by unthinking masses, she should remain cautious. She instructed the wolves not to wander into danger, no matter how enticing their amusements seemed. She was sure Kiba, in his love of pure simplicity, would not stray.

There was no sense of panic following her. Through the diminishing of the trees, there was a wasteland. She walked upon flat, grassless ground. And through a smog thick like road run-off, she detected rows of orthogonal structures.

It was only some sixty minutes later that Cheza could find any clarity to the buildings. Some seemed half-demolished, as though a wrecking ball had swiped at them. They could have been ruins, but there was nothing invitational about them; not at all.

_What is accomplishment without acknowledging the source of all genius?_ Cheza thought._ Creation becomes a parody._

They finally stepped through. Cheza and the wolves took time adjusting to the feel of the cobblestone walkways. The buildings had been emblazoned with lewd symbols commemorating the Nobles, but most had been worn, as if acid or bleach had faded them off. Silence reigned. Cheza finally dared to speak, although her voice was still barely audible. "Are we alone here?"

"No," murmured Hige.

One structure stood apart from its common neighbors. It showcased massive spires and intricate details, although Cheza did not understand the writing etched upon it, or even its letters. A chain design wove its way around the tower. It seemed Gothic in design, but it was most certainly not a church. Cheza and the two wolves were passing the side, when a flash of color from the side of the building made her gasp.

She turned when she spotted a flash of pink. A stained glass window was directly above her. The pink was a rendering of a cloak, similar to her own. It was worn by a girl with auburn-brown hair.

Hair like hers.

In the next pane, silver, grey, tawny, and white figures surrounded the girl. Their ears were pointed, and they possessed long snouts.

Wolves.

In the third pane, the wolves were running towards a silver, enormous depiction of the moon.

Cheza finally forced herself to look away. Her hand instinctively flew to her mouth, but Hige pulled it away before she could begin to gnaw on her cuticles again. "Oh," she exclaimed, cutting her speech into breathy half-sentences. "Oh. They know! The Nobles know."

"_The Book of the Moon_?" Kiba remarked. "They only _think_ they know. We live to bring God's Success to this world."  
"Yes. I was just amazed by how detailed this is!"

"They were given fleeting images by their master, and that's all. They don't know or understand what it means."

They were quick to leave the temple of hatred and awe.

Hige was growing anxious. Fidgeting by lacing and unlacing his "hands," he finally queried, "Is she really still here? How're we gonna find her, anyway?"

"I thought by now you'd be able to smell her," rejoined Cheza.

"My nose is clogged by all the pollution in this place!" he moaned back. Hige thought to stop griping and losing hope in the circumstance. He could keep going without being a pest, after all.

It was a smack of metal, like a garbage can hitting the pavement, which finally broke the unsettling stillness. Alert, Kiba quickly scouted his surroundings and noted the nearest alleyway. He pulled Cheza by the arm into it, then he and Hige flanked their maiden and waited.

The metallic clank was accompanied by the shattering of glass, as though someone had hurled a beer bottle against a wall. Light, fast footfalls echoed through the streets, growing louder as the runner approached them. A handful of slurred, enraged voices were, in turn, calling out, building to a crescendo, seemingly in pursuit of the rapid treader.

A woman barreled in to the alleyway. The smack of her knocking a trashcan as she turned the corner caused Cheza to look up from her narrow range of vision between her two protectors.

She caught sight of the short grey-blue denim shirtdress first. This person's legs were nearly entirely concealed by long, dark boots. The woman had placed a tanned hand upon the brick wall, seeming to catch her breath momentarily. Her hair fell across her face in a sort of a slovenly, long bob. Cheza could see it was thick and inkwell dark.

In an instant, the image of the young woman shifted before Cheza. The darkness she was cloaked in seemed to compress itself down and spill outwards. Then, Cheza could see it for certain. The woman was a black-coated wolf. She was built so predominantly dark, Cheza had difficulty discerning any distinguishing features about her. Except for the wolf's eyes. The creature was presently staring back at Cheza, almost defiantly, with a set of royal blue eyes.

Aware of the gawking, the young wolf lifted her head higher still, and suddenly, she was the early twenty-something woman again, daring the three strangers across from her to make a move.

Cheza caught herself smiling, yet she was unaware how radiant the smile was. It vied for attention with the sparkle in the new wolf's eyes.

If Cheza was ebullient at the sight of her, Hige was flabbergasted. His mouth swung agape. Cheza noticed how he drew in air as if to begin a speech, but all she heard from him was a quick, squeaking noise.

The shouts of the drunkards pressed against Cheza with constraint. As always, Kiba acted first.

"There's a way out of here. Want to come with us?"

The girl considered. "What, kid? You goin' to an arcade?"

"To Paradise."

She raised her eyebrows. The first of the men, a greased-hair, lanky brunette in a stained plaid shirt, rounded the corner and had sufficient time to survey the seeming five kids huddled in the alleyway.

The young woman leapt high into the air and with her feet, struck the man in the chest. He dropped to the ground, his back making contact with the cobblestone. Even as he raged to rise, Kiba seized him by the arms.

But the next two were upon them; a wider-built blonde and a mohawked, middle-aged grunt.

Continuing with their surprise tactics, Hige slammed Mohawk Man against a wall, while the young woman sank her very real fangs into the blonde's arm. Cheza only bristled slightly at the scream he gave.

Kiba's tactic remained in point to simply fight them off long enough to make a getaway. The pack harbored suspicions of what the trio had been after. Had they wanted her flesh, or had they been chasing this prey in the hopes of releasing their violence upon her? Regardless, their fury-fueled pursuit could only be successfully tamed by severe blows.

Kiba pulled Cheza to himself, lifting her as the wolves retreated. Cheza rested her head against Kiba's chest, comforted. She was so compelled to pray, to speak to God of her days amongst heroes, and to wonder of her future.

The mock church was in her range of vision. But suddenly, she witnessed a great, scouring white pour itself upon the building, its flood running through the streets. Then the structure was no more. In its place was a seeming infinitely-reaching city. Its roads were as untarnished as fresh snow. Trees palpably lush-painted green lined the streets. The Lady in blue was bedecked in the purest crystal, gazing over it.

As the image retreated back into mud and slate grey, Cheza realized, _God's Grace will wipe this city clean. He will claim it as His own when His People claim it-consecrate it in His Name_.

This was not Cheza's city. But it was a true city, nonetheless. She was overcome by the fleeting, real sign of hope.

Kiba's pace began to slow as he approached the woods, finally showing pale wisps of green among the branches. She remembered the warmth and security his arms were providing her. As her happiness surged, she placed her hand over Kiba's heart.

"Did you see it?" Cheza breathed.

Kiba knew enough to understand that Cheza had experienced some vision. "No." He shook his head gently. He glanced down at her and smiled.

The forest enveloped them once more. Life was being won.

Anymore, all Kiba seemed to remember was the land as it appeared now. He knew to run to a place of God's goodness, but he did not know his place within this Paradise. Even as he considered that it might not be his time or place to know, his mind pressed on with questions until he found himself silently praying for their answers to be given.

And for a moment, he saw himself in woods he had never seen before, yet this Kiba

seemed comfortable and familiar in this setting. It was a true wood, that much he was able to piece together. It was green, clean, and abundant, though the scope of what he was being shown was narrow, like a human's telescope revealing details from far away, but never the whole scene. This image of himself, content in his true wolf form, was walking alongside another person, a human. There was no sense of panic or anger between them. He then saw an image of a gate being raised.

The images halted there.

Kiba could see he had a future; he had always known that. He thought it was possible to know too much about his future, but he believed God would still ask him to protect, even in the realm of Paradise. Yet he would live as a true wolf.

He would be free.

Cheza was at once both thrilled and intrigued by her new pack member. While the maiden gawked, Hige stole himself between the two and promptly chatted up the young wolf.

"Where ya from? I've been traveling with Kiba for a few moons now. _I'm_ Hige, and that one's Kiba. The human is Cheza, our Flower Maiden. They're quiet, right?" He suddenly laughed, "You get used to it."

Cheza shot a cautionary glance towards Hige. There was no reason to bombard her just after she has fled with them.

For her own part, the young wolf seemed unflappable through the steady inquisition. She kept her answers brief, and looked to Hige just long enough to be polite. It was clearer to Cheza that as the new wolf more often gazed outward to nothing in particular, she was ruminating on herself.

Kiba finally released Cheza to the ground. Cheza thought to call Toboe back, but then, as Kiba finally suggested that Hige withdraw from the new wolf, Cheza summed the courage to approach her.

The wolf in human form stretched, and watched, rather amused, as the new set of eyes regarded her.

"Hello." Cheza finally spoke.

"Hey," smiled the wolf.

There was a considered pause as Cheza seemed to struggle in conversation. Sensing it, the wolf drew closer.

"I've been rude. My name's Blue. Pops gave it to me." Cheza took Blue's hand-shaped paw in her own.

"I need to know. Do you want this?"

Blue sighed, looked away. "So, what is 'this'? What is it you do?"

"We are walking to a place that will become a new city. One for God, named Rakuen. Sometimes, we meet new people on the way. Humans who want good; who follow Truth."

"You're saying it's all about good, truth, and what God wants, right? That's what you're doing?"

"We try to. He has to make that clear and simple to us, because we would not understand it otherwise." Cheza lowered her head for a moment. "I know I am weak. But the message is there. You do not have to have special gifts to know it."

Blue shook her head. "The world is nuts…And God still wants us. Huh. So, what happens if _I_ don't want it?"

"You will become like the men who chased you today."

Blue's "fists" clenched. "Then that's it? There are just two choices left?" She folded her arms, deep in thought. "What's the point in wanting it, then?"

"It is active participation. It is cooperation. That is how it works, and we are in store for so many great things!" Cheza's voice softened. "I would not have known of you if He had not opened my eyes to someone who wanted out of that town."

Blue's arms unfolded. She let her fingers interlace with Cheza's. "I know who you are, too. I knew before Hige said anything…I miss Pops. Do you know what's going to happen to him?"

Cheza head moved slowly from one side to the other. "There are rumors circling about him. I know of the man who raised you. But I do not know what is to become of him. That is why you must pray. You prayers travel faster to The Father than your four heels do, and carry back strength greater than the clench of your jaws."

"You, Kiba, and even Hige came when I needed you. I do want to follow, but…can I just take this a step at a time? Can I see what's in store?"

"Stay with us as you see fit. The choice will always be yours. You are welcome to this journey. You will see as much as I. I do not know of all the wonders that are yet to come."

Toboe was encouraged by the early signs of Spring. If there was still a rhythm to the seasons (even though Tsume said it was gone), it meant that more animals would wander from their burrows of hibernation and wander out, making good targets for Toboe.

Why had his grandma always wanted him to stay close to their home? Why had she often seemed so nervous? He knew that Cheza and Kiba believed in being careful; Cheza said to do otherwise would be a foolish waste of a gift. But they were not afraid.

Toboe playfully put on the airs of a great hunter and warrior as he crouched beside some budding brush, body tensed and ready. When the moment was right, he would spring forward, catch his prey unawares, and be victorious!

Suddenly, in the distance, his name was being called. It was Cheza. More good news, he was sure. He laughed off his adventure and began to trot back to her.

Cheza remembered more.

It came rather incidentally, without much to preface its arrival. Yet as she, Toboe, and Blue strolled through their wooded path, Cheza recalled the woman with the red hair again. She was facing the old lady near the entryway of a door of a house.

_Was it my house_? Cheza wondered.

The woman's brow was furrowed in tension. Cheza seemed to recall peering down the hall at them. Perhaps she had been in the next room.

"I can't do it!" the woman declared. "I just can't. Did you see what those other parents had their children wearing? Cripes, did you hear how they were _talking_? They're little kids!"

The old woman had taken the younger one by the shoulders. "You'll send her out. She'll be our Cheza. They won't change how we've parented her. If she comes back with questions, we'll answer them."

The younger woman looked up from her wrung hands.

"She's ours. She won't become that way," the older woman continued. "We can't hide her away. That's not what life is for."

The younger woman swiped at her eyes and nodded.

Cheza continued to wonder about the whereabouts of these two women. She reasoned it was like how Toboe talked about his human grandma, or Blue's human Pops. Even Kiba had begun to speak of his past, and had mentioned Tsume's to her in passing.

_But why has Hige, for all of his conversations, been silent on this subject_? She puzzled. _Has he really spent all of his life traveling in human cities, only making superficial friends before departing for a new place_?

Something about it did not make sense to Cheza. Still, she decided that if there was more for her to know about the matter, Hige would share it in his time. It was not her place to know all things about the people in her life.

Five day's worth of traveling passed. Cheza felt warmer in the night, and the days graciously extended themselves a little longer each day. She was again sided with Toboe and Blue. Toboe ran in circles by them, and sang the songs that Hige and his grandma had taught him. Blue smiled indulgently at it all.

Then, abruptly, Blue froze. "Toboe!" she called sharply.

"Yeah?" Toboe cocked his head, bemused.

"Did you feel that?"

"Kinda. Yeah."

She turned to Cheza. "Did _you_?"

"Feel what?" Cheza asked, confused. She heard a rustle, and quickly turned behind her. The slim leaves and branches were all shuddering. It did not feel like a quake, but Cheza did not understand what was causing it the effect. It did not seem to be the wind.

Cheza finally heard a distant rumbling. She squinted to the horizon.

It was time to find cover again.


	7. Chapter 7

To Cheza and Toboe, it was like the sky had melted. A pure, cerulean blue faced them like a wall as they turned. It was capped by a shifting, foaming white.

A pair of arms grasped her and lifted her off of her feet. She looked up long enough to recognize the curves of a jaw line that were Kiba's. Her stomach felt compressed as he leapt high into the air. She observed a tangle of branches and realized they had landed in a tree.

He pushed off again. Her head seemed to be swimming. She clutched him firmly and shut her eyes.

She soon lost track of how many times her warrior protector sprung from one perch to the next. On and on it seemed to go. Cheza could hear a rumbling like an earthquake more distinctively now. A misting foam settled on her face before Kiba pushed higher still.

Then, suddenly, the lurching sensations stopped. Cheza did not dare budge until Kiba finally spoke: "Open your eyes, Cheza."

She complied. They were again on a high incline; a ledge of some sort. She focused on the scene before her, still and mute.

The sky had not bled itself after all. Instead, she saw it was a broken wave that somehow illogically surged forward. It swallowed forest trees whole with only a rustle of protest from them. Wooden debris was scattered along the visible plane, seeming to indicate it had carried pieces of a town along with it.

Cheza pulled herself out her reverie enough to take further notice of her makeshift refuge. The cliff's edge was wide enough to easily accommodate all of the wolves. She could count all of them: Blue, Hige, Toboe, and Tsume, all in various poses of reaction to the scene below. Kiba remained unflinching by her side.

As the pack looked on uncertainly, it was in Tsume that she read the most confusion. Finally, his brow unfurrowed and he exhaled slowly. He saw her face, waiting, and he approached her, letting a broad paw rest on her shoulder.

"Who will you have left to lead, Flower Maiden?" There was nothing challenging in his tone.

"Our people live."

"How?" Challenged Blue.

"Look at us," Cheza reminded them. "We are here-without even a bruise on any of us. All we have had to do was follow the way God sent before us. The others have done the same."

Cheza thought of Maya in that moment. The woman was further inland than Cheza or the wolves were presently. It was entirely possible that that little haven, her cabin, was still intact. The maiden felt no sense of alarm towards any of the other refuges, either.

As she continued to survey the swirling wreckage, her mind worked ahead of the present moment. The pack would now have to push back further West before they could attempt to travel South.

Hige backed up from the pack to make room for himself. Earlier in the day, he had asked to borrow Cheza's sack. Having retained it as he scaled the cliff, he spread it open. Delighted, he savored the spoils he had scavenged: a banana and three pastries. His jaw was just opening when he glimpsed Kiba approaching from the side.

Kiba nudged him. Hige, mouth salivating, just managed to snap his jaws together before he sprinkled saliva all over a fruit muffin. He regarded Kiba uncertainly.

Kiba shook his head at Hige: _No_.

Hige responded with something as close to a glare as he could get. Still, he sighed and rolled onto his feet. He managed to smirk as he divided the food and presented it to Toboe and Cheza. For Blue, his smile was slow and tender. He then bolted to the opposite end of the cliff once more before she could piece together a thank-you.

Cheza took her share falteringly. She looked to see if the other wolves might benefit more from the little food Hige found, but already, Kiba was still gazing upon her firmly, shaking his head: _No_.

She reluctantly complied, and broke off a piece of pastry for herself. Its sweetness startled her. The sugared coating dissolved in her mouth as she chewed.

"We should find a way to keep moving," She volunteered.

Kiba motioned her to notice the other wolves. In his true form, Toboe was yawning; his front legs stretching before him as he leaned forward. They both noticed Blue as she strode to the opposite end of the cliff and reclined near Hige.

"Can we wait until early tomorrow?"

Cheza frowned. Even as the pack's nerves were settling, something seemed awry to her. As she scanned her environment, she noticed Toboe. He was leaning over the edge of the cliff, his snout close to the sticky-bubbled foam of the water; a foam that did not dissipate, like boiled syrup.

He seemed entranced by the rhythmic flow of the water. But he was forgetting caution. Cheza knew what was going to happen.

She broke into a sprint and reached the cliff's edge, scooping Toboe into her arms. Unlike her early days with them, the wolves could observe she was growing light and fast on her feet. She reached the end of the incline and pressed herself against Toboe, Toboe himself flat against a rock wall.

The water broke where Toboe had been daydreaming, and raged past the blockade, dousing the two in a thick mist.

Cheza finally pulled away. She, in turn, now seemed imperceptive to everything except her racing heart. In her daze, she finally felt someone's fingers slide across her cheek.

It was Toboe, taking on his human form. Then, he whisked his hand, water flying off. He was smiling.

It appeared that despite her covering him, some water had managed to settle on him, as well. She carefully grazed his forehead with her fingers, and then flicked off the water droplets.

He giggled. She laughed.

Hige had watched the whole scene from his place across the way. He jumped up in protest. He was about to exclaim, _Hey, Runt! You think nearly losing your head is funny?_ when he saw Kiba raising a hand to him to keep his silence.

Cheza was growing again; this time in bravery. And Kiba's heart surged in realization of this.

What remained in life was a theatre piece depicting chaos. All hunted all: for sport, for aggression, for defense. It amused the creature.

The distinction between soldier and citizen was now blurred. Even if their resources were depleted, they could always turn upon each other for sustenance.

The Nobles, at least, pursued who they wanted with thought and care. If they could slip past these guerilla war zones unnoticed, they would be free to mouse for any straggling pockets of Christians, and wait for the moment when Earth was claimed for the best.

He held fast to his intellect, yet he could not help relishing his newer, baser instincts. A rustle in a bush could be picked up by his ears; the movement pushing the full fragrance of the animal upon him. Then it was seamless, there was no thought as his muscles would compress to crouch and push forward to lunge.

Reigning did not simply mean recalling the animals' strength. It meant taking the best of the animals to assume power. The creature marveled that no Noble but him had had the foresight for the commitment.

He yearned to take The Flower Maiden, and to snuff out the lives of the sad little pack she had wooed into joining her. But everything was close. The moment was approaching him.

Blue sat with her knees drawn in, surveying the newly-razed scene.

_I am surviving_, she reminded herself.

_How does someone survive?_

She lifted her head and sang.

The other wolves noted her crisp, alto voice as it vied for attention with the wind; "She spun a tale, around and 'round, with care to flatter me. And when she's done, we'd have some fun; the two of us were three."

Hige caught Toboe's smile. "You're not singing," the elder pointed out.

Toboe shrugged. "It's a girl's song."

Hige decided not to mention the song was intended for a male singer. "I can teach ya some songs, if y'd like."

It was not these songs of hope, the voices occasionally forgetting themselves and slipping into soft howls, which awakened Cheza. Instead, she felt a clinical coldness along her wrists, and the same frigid sensation creeping along the tips of her ears.

She dreamed she was bound by steel restraints; her just-curving body raised in a darkened laboratory. Adhesives with wires attached to them monitored her common instincts.

A man emerged from the shadows. He was beautiful; his complexion immaculate. Perhaps he was a noble. It was difficult to know for certain. She had difficulty taking in all of her environment, but she saw that he bore a prominent widow's peak and had an eye patch over his left eye.

"You have a belief in a god, and I respect that," the man explained. "You should know that it is not a god but _you_ who has chosen to punish the world."

He threw his hand in the air, as if batting away an insect. Then, Cheza could see a globed instrument beneath her as it began to glow. She drew in her breath. Beneath her, she was privy to a scene of vibrant green foliage with a limpid river dividing the terrain. One orderly town after another flashed before her. She was able to glimpse the smiles of young people before the locations would shift to another.

"We had to use your gifts against your will to restore balance," the gentleman added. "Why don't you come down and accept your share in this? We have room for one such as you."

Cheza yearned for this sense of stability. She was worn out from the long hikes, and craved a home.

_Is this Rakuen_? She wondered.

"Will you come, Cheza?"

Cheza started at the sound of her own name. The man had not called her "this one".

Then, something reminded her, _You have been asked this before_.

She strained her eyes in the dim light to look the man in his one good eye. The man seemed to recognize this, and began to lift his eye patch in what she thought was an act of humility.

Still, something was wrong. This was not at all what her Heavenly Mother had described.

His eye was just so odd…

As he shifted his patch, Cheza managed to shout, "_No_!" with more force than she thought she was able.

The Noble jerked slightly in place, as if startled. Then, he distinctly glared at the girl. At this, his one uncovered eye began to glow. The darkness covered him like a garment, and Cheza heard a low growling…

A warm dampness covered her face. She frowned and opened her eyes. She was greeted not by a Noble, but by Kiba. He had kissed her awake, though now he had put on his human appearance.

"What was it?" he pressed her.

"A false promise."

"The other side is getting desperate."

"One of the keeps, the one owned by the Noble Darcia, just fell," Blue remarked.

Cheza stretched. "How do you know that?"

"Can't you smell that? It smells like rich stuff and old building parts," gawped Toboe.

"Kid, don't bring that up!" motioned Hige. "You know humans can't smell that well!"

Toboe retreated to Tsume, who groaned but said nothing.

"The ground," murmured Cheza. She was now peering over the side of the ledge.

"Right," agreed Tsume. She had just discovered that the waters had frozen over entirely.

"Is it safe to cross?" she pursued.

Tsume smirked, "If Lardo can make it over fine, it's gonna be no problem for the rest of us."

"But that's not safe," Cheza interjected. "If the ice breaks, how would any of us rescue him?"

"We can't stay up here," Kiba replied. "You had said it yourself yesterday." He paused before adding, "_That_ wouldn't be safe."

Cheza looked to her pack. The two elder wolves nodded in agreement. Blue even managed to almost appear calm about the arrangement.

"Okay!" grinned Hige, "Time to go!" He clapped his "hands" together and then brushed them back and forth. He made a show to everyone as he rubbed his head against Blue's. Blue looked away, her tanned human skin revealing sanguine shades around her cheeks.

Just before he reached the edge, he pressed his mouth to the side of Cheza's face in a human kiss. Then, almost nonchalantly, he dropped.

Despite her misgivings, she found herself compelled to peer over the ravine. Hige was easing his way down the incline, one jutted rock at a time. When his feet made contact with the ice, he held himself rigidly and pointed his nose forward. Then, he proceeded, his steps calculated and his movements deliberate.

In little time, his features blended with the white of the ice and the grey of the sky. Cheza caught herself squinting as she watched what remained of him recede in her field of vision.

"It's fine!" Hige bellowed. The new landscape amplified his voice, providing a slight echo. Cheza started.

"How do you know?" she hollered back. She caught the phrase "…_you know?_" traveling back to her as if the sky itself were taking a halfhearted interest in following the conversation.

"It all smells of ice! Look!" He leapt high into the air. Cheza estimated that his legs must have been twelve feet from solid ground before gravity took hold again.

"_Hige_!" she shrieked in alarm.

Even as his name was finished being called, he landed, albeit awkwardly. His legs did not support him, and with the sleekness of the ice, they went from under him; his "hands" catching him before he could fall straight on his back. Feeling the force of the impact, he laid upon the ice, laughing at his own tomfoolery as he occasionally groaned.

For his own part, Tsume had watched more than his fill of foolishness. "Just don't go anywhere," he called.

"…_where_," the sky concurred.

"Come on," he muttered, eyeing the remaining clan.

Kiba's "arms" enclosed Cheza. He was lifting her now without being asked to.

Tsume being first, they made their descent.

Nothing was of a surprise to Cheza any longer. If Spring became Winter, then deserts could transform themselves into jungles. Autumn could become Summer. No man-made clock could predict whether day or night was upon her.

So it did not amaze her when despite the appearance of a frozen tundra, she did not feel very cold. Her rose-colored cloak, quickly becoming her own emblem, sufficed for protection against the elements.

But the day did not seem to offer Cheza any solace. For the young woman who was usually quiet but of good spirit, she was observed displaying a somber countenance, holding on to the makeshift rosary that a man from one of the safehouses had fashioned for her. It was really just a threaded cord with knots representing each prayer to be said. Still, she made good use of it.

"Please tell me I have misunderstood you, Mother," she plead softly as she proceeded alongside her companions. The wolves eyed each other, but did not remark.

Cheza bowed her head. She was still speaking, still praying, but her words were coming out rapidly, almost indiscernibly. They elided into each other, and looped back to the beginning.

It was making Toboe nervous. He finally ran from behind and exclaimed, "What's wrong?"

Cheza looked to him and smiled in a way he had never seen before. It looked as if the act pained her. She touched the side of his face. Her eyes shone briefly with unfallen human tears.

"We will have to separate," she explained.

Blue turned quizzically. Hige appeared wounded; his head cocked, his lips parted slightly as if stuck in midsentence. Tsume stared in disbelief until Cheza noticed him doing so. Then he quickly looked away, clearing his throat.

"It is just for a little while!" Cheza assured Toboe.

"We are a pack," Kiba reminded her.

"I know." She paused before continuing, "I think it is up to us to be there when God awakens Paradise. The others will follow. Even when a pack is banded, the members disburse then reunite when they each have jobs to do. Is that not right?"

"If it were a normal pack in a normal place," Hige brought up to her, waiving his hand back to showcase the frigid landscape. "An' it's not!"

"If it's what God wants, there has to be a good reason," Kiba reasoned. "We might increase our chances of surviving if we are not all in one spot if a Noble finds us."

"You two will go? And then we'll follow?" Restated Tsume.

"Yes," replied Cheza, "God never breaks His Promises."

"How do you know?"

Cheza brought part of what she had been handling up to eye level with Tsume.

At the center of her cord rosary, there were knots which shaped a cross.

The farewells struck Tsume as being unremarkable, even for a wolf who seldom voiced his emotions. Still, he would have said _something_ to Cheza, had the efficient Kiba allowed the time for it.

Tsume had recalled his mistakes; they were incarnate to him in the glare of a fellow wolf or the startled countenance of a boy. For a time, Tsume could not shut out of his mind the echo of the boy's shouts just as he slipped from the wolf's grasp.

But there was Cheza. Cheza had said that Rakuen was to be a place of new beginnings. She said that God forgave when someone confessed.

He sighed as he recalled her informed optimism. He didn't know how he fit into this grand picture that the wolves were supposed to live, but he did know that he wanted a part in a place where there was a future.

When Cheza had said goodbye to the other wolves, she had looked to Hige the longest. He smiled at her, puzzled, and finally asked, "Whaaaht?"

"You will see," she responded formally.

As it happened, he did not have to wait long to learn what she meant.

He smelled him first; dried blood and old human sweat which commingled with the varying components of the dirt which once covered the plain.

Toboe spotted him before anyone else, and certainly before he had noticed the group. Even in their human form though, a youthful gang would stand out starkly against what was otherwise a blank canvas.

Tsume leaned in towards the other wolves. He spoke without moving his lips. "Just wait him out. Stay calm about it. If he becomes aggressive, then we attack."

Blue gave a brief toss of her head in assent, as if throwing the hair back from her face. Hige stood attentively. Tobe made elaborate skirting motions with his legs to seem casual. After a few moments, he looked to Tsume for approval. In his innocent eagerness, he looked like the boy.

Tsume did not look away. He spoke directly to Toboe, and to his own nightmare, "_Steady_."

And the man did approach. Any man would have been bewitched by the sight of kids and young adults on their own in a newly barren area, seemingly oblivious to the cold. The wolves noticed the straight path he toward them once they were in his field of vision, as if his mind could only hold a single thought in it at a time. Still, his footing on the ice was unsure, and it impacted his pace. As a figure on the horizon, he slipped twice, his chin just missing contact with the ice.

When he was capable of being sized up, it merely confirmed what the wolves' senses had already observed. He was gaunt and grimy. Blue tried not to grimace at the scent of polluted air and human refuse he carried with him. His cheekbones were carved in like a yield sign, back when those had existed. Yet all of his features were secondary to his mien.

His washed blue eyes were slightly bloodshot. His skin, pink and white, looked chapped from the cold, yet he did not seem to notice it. He did not seem to register any of the abuses placed upon his body, and barely responded to the cold gusts of wind which swept across his face.

By the time he was twelve feet from them, the wolves' semicircle opened, as if they had just noticed his approach. The man had halted, staring blankly towards them.

Hige feigned friendliness. "Hey," he called with shrug. The rest of the wolves mimicked a halfhearted acceptance of his presence without speaking.

The man's eyes bulged. "_Wolf_!"

The wolves looked at each other. Blue permitted herself a chuckle while Toboe smiled.

"Ya think y' saw a wolf somewhere, eh?" Hige called back.

"_Wolf_!" the man repeated with fervor. He pointed straight to Hige. The mark on his hand was visible to everyone.

"_I'm_ wolf?" Hige tapped his chest. "You're about two decades too late to catch one."

Tsume broke character first. He intuited what was about to transpire. "Watch"-he began to shout.

And the man lunged forward. His mouth opened as though he was trying to scream in attack, but all he produced were gurgling noises from the back of his throat. This gesture from such a physically weak person might have seemed harmless, or would have even further amused the wolves, except that the hand which bore the familiar symbol had slipped into the pocket of his jacket.

Hige yanked the enemy's arm back faster than he could react. An impressively long and sharp blade from a penknife was being clutched by the guilty hand.

Being so outnumbered, the wolves' attack against the errant man lasted only a few moments. Tsume would have gladly silenced his obnoxious cries, but Hige and Blue had already set to the task of defending themselves. Tsume could have assured himself and Toboe that the aggressor's pain was over, but the wolf knew that a worse suffering was awaiting him.

So there was nothing left to be done. Except…

"He only went for you."

"What?" Hige had placed a "hand" on Toboe's shoulder and was ushering him away from the bloodied remains. At the sound of Tsume's voice, he turned to face his pack member.

"The human just went for you. He didn't seem too interested in the rest of us."

"Yeah…" As realization of that truth broke upon Hige, he slowly shook his head. "How 'bout that."

"Why?" Tsume pursued.

"He was crazy from the chip," Blue broke in, a touch of defensiveness in her gaze. She had allowed herself to appear as a human again, and after a moment's recognition, the other wolves saw the color drain from her face.

"The chip," she quietly reiterated.

Tsume tried to follow her train of thought. Something had to have shaken Blue; she seemed to have arrived at a conclusion, while Tsume wrestled with several ideas about Hige's sudden appeal to the enemy.

"We should see if there are others coming," she declared.

"You think you know why it happened."

Blue nodded.

"Then take care of it if you can. Toboe and I will go look."

Hige was facing Blue. "So what is it?" he wondered to her.

"Where did you get your collar?"

"I dunno." Even though he was picking at the corner of his sweatshirt, Blue knew he was telling the truth.

She watched him for a moment before continuing, "Before you joined us, what were you doing?"

"You mean every day, or just before?"

"Well, I meant every day; but was there something special happening just before you met Kiba?"

He ignored the second half of her question. "Before I met you, I was traveling. You know that."

"What about before that?"

Hige tried to smile, but Blue's sober face withered even _his_ usual blithe disposition. "I don't really remember," he admitted, "I've been hiding in the cities for a long time now."

"Take off your collar," she ordered with a sense of urgency.

Hige thought better than to argue the point with her. He even restrained himself from joking as he began to pull at the artificial leather. "It not coming off," he muttered. Inexplicably, a low ringing sounded in his ears. He dropped the collar from his paws and mouth. The Emergency Broadcast Non-Melody halted. Nervously, Hige swallowed.

Blue was already gesturing him to follow her. Suddenly, she was back in her wolf-dog form. "Let's find a way to make you free of this."

_Why? How? Where?_ Hige wanted to ask, but he was getting apprehensive for the answer.

Blue and Hige were light on their feet as they raced across the tundra. Hige recalled the leaping flight of deer, though he did not know from when. Despite their grace, wolves were always quieter on their feet than deer. Even heavy-set Hige could evade their detection until it was too late for them to successfully escape.

He was still trying to recall more of his past. He could remember being introduced to the scent of the collar as it was fitted around his neck, but when he pushed further to think of the face who had collared him, or where he had been at the time, all he could connect to was the roar of a subway train, the wind of it striking his face as he walked past the port in a human guise.

Blue panted generously as she stopped by a piece of metal protruding from the ice. Hige was close behind her, and it did not take long for him to recognize it as being sharp. It could have been a beam from a former building, or a car part that had refused to sink, he reasoned. Regardless, he understood, and stood to full human height to force his collar over it.

The ringing was now a clamoring. The area behind his eyelids and in his sinuses throbbed. He tried not to flinch before the gentle-yet-strong Blue.

Greater than the pain, greater even than his willingness to impress Blue, was his desire to run free from the waste and emptiness surrounding him. He wondered about himself, but all he saw was wandering without purpose; hiding in plain view. Being no one.

He threw his weight against the metal. It felt as though his skull was being compressed. His vision blurred to one mass of grey, so he shut his eyes. The looping noise grew to an electrical shriek. It was intolerable. The collar was cutting off his air supply. He managed to cough in his little white-washed torture chamber. Then, the sound of a tear was just detectable above the screeching and drilling. He collapsed; the collar slipping from his neck.

Wind. There was the sound of wind, and nothing more. He felt dampness, and knew his companion was tenderly nudging him. Hige opened his eyes. Blue was holding the remnants of his collar. He dared to sit up. As he pushed himself forward, he the world did not spin with him. He was fine.

On the ground, the cheap metal "X" had snapped in half. Circuitry was exposed. Curiosity overcame Hige, and he picked off a piece of the metal. The electronics stuck out in a clumsy, awkward way. It wasn't The Chip. It didn't matter, though, he recognized. It was human; that was enough.

He scanned the horizon for another animal to replace him as a lab rat or a guinea pig-whatever it was the humans had slipped to him. But even as he ruminated the solution of pushing the problem away and on to someone else, he began imagining the human device active and out in the world. There was enough waste.

He pulled out the circuit and showed Blue before he crunched it satisfyingly in the palm of his closed hand.

Blue hadn't known what to expect from Hige. But she had innocently hoped he would look to her and flash one of his grins. She had hoped he would seem relieved after his ordeal ended.

Instead, after he had crushed the circuit they had found in his collar, he withdrew several feet, sitting with his knees drawn in. Blue observed this, and let some time pass before she approached him.

He didn't look up, didn't acknowledge her as she walked toward him and stood next to him, crossing her arms. She fought against her restlessness. _Has another minute passed? _She waited for a few beats. _How many now?_ she wondered silently.

Blue finally spoke: "Should we go find Tsume and Toboe?"

She thought she saw him blink.

Finding how unproductive her first tactic was, she declared, "It's over. It's done. And we have to keep moving. So let's go."

But without the numbing effects of human technology, Hige recalled his sins. His mind was painting the features of each member of his first pack. He remembered their bodies growing limp when they were hunted down for sport. And instead of howling, instead of snapping when the humans stroked his coat in appreciation, he downed the rich food they brought him in mass supply. He could bury these days, these memories, he knew. He could push them down until it would almost be like they had never existed.

"I was tagged, an' I betrayed my clan!" Hige shot at her. "So what do you even know about running?"

Blue clenched her "fists" and stared him down. "Everything I thought I was was a lie. My family's dead and my Pops could be out there in this cold all by himself. But you know what? I'm free. Cheza was right. Forgiveness is real, if you ask for it. And it's you that I want, if that matters to you anymore."

Hige turned his head to her. There were a few things he could hold on to, and all of them interconnected with each other. There was still God. Hige believed in Rakuen. And there was Blue. It wasn't the attraction of her form or even her alluring scent that defined how he viewed her. It was love.


	8. The Book of Rakuen

Cheza pressed herself against the wind as she trudged on. It actually seemed to support her; its power was substantial.

The weather had muted most of her emotions, but her exposed skin was raw as the frigid air slapped it. Something kept stabbing her in her left boot as she walked; _Did ice fall in earlier? _she wondered blankly.

Still, despite her grievances, she found her body moving. It stomped on in a most mechanical way. All she needed to do was watch in her detached state.

Something needed to be said._ Can I still talk?_ she asked herself. She thought of the wind diving into her vocal chords and snatching her words like a precious gem. She tried, anyway.

She could just barely discern her feminine intonations above the raucous chill. She recognized her voice saying, "It will not be much longer."

Kiba, just ahead of her, slowed. "Until?"

Cheza forced the breath out of her diaphragm so she could hear herself clearly. "Until it happens. We will have to find cover then."

"Why?" He was not in opposition to her resting; she looked pale and moved without any vigor. But Kiba wanted to know more about the awakening of Rakuen. He thought he needed that motivation.

"That is how it must be. The world will be cleansed while we are hidden away. We will pray. And when we step out from this, we will be walking into Rakuen."

As he let Cheza approach the side of him, he considered asking her what Rakuen was going to be, but smiling at her for courage, he did not press her any further. In truth, he knew that she would only understand as much as he did about what could be. No one had experienced this place in its entirety. That is why it was known as being yet to be.

He had heard so many stories of the world in its beginning. He pressed on for truth because he wanted to find himself, living exactly as he was meant to. Above all, he could observe and he could reason. Love was truth. And most of the humans in the world took and took until they denied themselves.

But somehow, through a midnight storm, a lunar flower had bloomed. She had drifted from a place nothing like here. She wasn't The Lord and she wasn't Rakuen. But she belonged in Rakuen. And she was his.

As he had journeyed in the past few months, he had sought her as a reminder of what must be coming. His sign was a single bloom from an expansive field he would someday rest in. For now, it would be enough.

Tsume kept his word. He made certain the other wolves in the clan believed him.

Tsume and Toboe watched and waited away from Hige and Blue. For an extended time, they observed no one. There was only snow being pushed into their fur coats by the wind. Tsume was growing irritated, and considered calling Toboe back to return to the other two, when he finally hearkened a scraping and clanking noise, as if someone were awkwardly handling a piece of equipment as he walked.

A gun, maybe.

By the time he was finally visible to the two pack members, he had managed to secure the rather large gun into its holster. He wore a red overcoat. Despite the scruff on his face, he had approachable features.

Two boulders accentuated themselves from the ice near where Tsume stood. Toboe had noticed the strange man in red, and instead of confronting him, had retreated a short distance back to Tsume. There were occasional odd items jutting up from a frozen grave. Tsume thought that the depth of the water must not have been all uniform throughout.

He sized up the pair and decided, _These will work fine_. He motioned Toboe to crouch behind them. They both switched their appearance to that of a human's. Tsume climbed the top of the stone, intending to leap from it if necessary. His footing missed a place as it slipped against a patch of ice, and it jammed in the crevice between the two. Tsume emitted a startled bark before he realized he had broken character.

Toboe scrambled to the front facing boulder and scaled it partway. He extended his "hand". "Come on!" he urged.

This was how the man found the pair as he jogged over. Toboe was calling out instructions and Tsume was trying to comply. "Just move it back a little!"

"Try pulling on three," Tsume enjoined.

But Toboe whirled around. He knew he had garnered the attention of the human.

Their gazes met just as the man reached a car length's distance from Toboe. The man in red should have seemed innocent enough. His countenance looked as though it had held much warmth for others. There were a few worn creases beside his eyes. But when the man did attempt to smile at the form of the boy, his lips curled and wavered on his face as if they could not find the right position to show congeniality.

"Hey," the man simpered, "is your daddy stuck?"

Toboe placed himself protectively between the man and Tsume.

"Aw…" the man remarked. "We can pull him out of that." Toboe noticed he was reaching for his gun.

"No!" the pup shouted.

"You think you can stop me, kid?" the man in red smirked. His expression finally fit his face.

That was when Toboe reacted. In his defensive anger, he felt himself shedding his human guise. The man in red had just enough time to reveal genuine shock before the pup lunged at him.

The man was already on the move. He still tried to run closer to the jutting boulders. That proved to be a mistake. Toboe's next lunge did not miss him, and the man could not evade him quickly enough. Already visibly bleeding from an arm, he too missed his footing, and falling backward, his head made contact with rock.

Toboe did not even look on long enough to see if the guy was still moving. He rushed back to Tsume and found an angle to free his pack member's foot.

Tsume shook his foot and then put his weight upon it. He was fine. "So, we're good now?"

"I'm sorry," Toboe confessed.

"He was going to kill us." Tsume scanned the horizon as he spoke. All was still. "You did what you had to do." He stretched. They'd been surveying the land for long enough, and it seemed fairly clear that their aggressor had come alone. He turned, and again, seemed to be addressing the air as he said, "I'm going to tell the others about your bravery."

Toboe shrugged, his gesture unseen, and jogged to keep pace with his elder. "They're not gonna believe you."

At that, Tsume halted and finally faced the pup. "They know I don't make stuff up. I'm not a dog in a court. I don't flatter. I only give people what they earn."

Toboe considered this.

Tsume noticed the quiet musing of Toboe. _That pup's gotta think through everything_, the elder remarked silently to himself. "Come on."

The darkness did come.

For his own part, Kiba greeted it with almost a sense of relief. He himself could only push on for so long, and Cheza needed respite. The cold had not relented.

Neither one of them was happy for the dark itself. Kiba tried not to think of those who would be lost to it. Still, images of the proud, the deceitful, and the good he had seen in the passing months flashed before him. He knew his place was not to judge. Cheza said to pray.

In the final days, there were few people left to evade. It was not all that surprising to either of them therefore when they happened upon a small abandoned house a quarter of a mile in from a major road. While they had retreated from the frozen wave, they were stepping through at least six inches of snow at a time. Though not dug out, the ramshackle building was visible enough to the two of them. With chipped day-glow blue shutters against a muddied white frame, it reminded Cheza of an old Easter egg.

She remembered Easter eggs.

Cheza had asked Kiba to recall the location of that unworthy pile of cement and glass as they moved on. Now that the hour approached, and they had not moved far against the snow, Cheza brought up the house again.

"There?"

"Yes," was her decisive reply.

Still, it was a house, and all Cheza could think of was how Kiba felt too dignified as a wolf to sojourn in a place meant for humans. Grateful to have something to give to the ever-compliant Cheza, Kiba lifted her and carried her over the threshold.

"I am sorry," he heard her murmur.

"Hush." It did not matter where he was. None of it mattered. He just knew he could not leave her, not like this.

After she had rested, she pulled the blinds, hunted for and successfully found candles and matches, lit the wicks, and waited. In the meantime, Kiba had sniffed out cans of food. The two of them argued over who needed the greater portion, each arguing in favor of the other.

The front door of this temporary home opened to a kitchen. The floor was of cracked linoleum and the appliances stood against the graying light in mustard yellow. A wobbly table stood in the center with a plastic-sheen tablecloth draped over it. Past a swinging door was a den of sorts with a worn but comfortable wrap around couch. The carpet color ranged from cloudy to midnight gray depending upon what indiscernible stain had settled into it.

Kiba was surprised, but Cheza felt at ease in this homey, lived-in atmosphere. The outmoded style reminded her vaguely of the house she grew up in, from what little she could recall. Kiba was fine with the arrangement himself. He had chosen to remain in worse spots before.

What he recalled the most was rhythm. He had learned when he was young that the rush of the wind, the flow of the streams, and the song of the birds all met each other with perfect accord. He had faith that Rakuen understood harmony.

After he had rolled a can of peas into the den, Kiba froze, his ears flattened to the sides of his head, as though he were straining to hear something. Cheza waited uncertainly.

"What?" she finally said.

"It's here," he explained simply.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the gray light began to darken. It was a descent into night in fast forward. Cheza instinctively looked to the two candles on the coffee table. Their flickering glow stood out against the blackness all the more as the hour descended and the black all but enveloped them.

Cheza said what Kiba was thinking, "Blue's Pops has been preparing her for this day. She will know what to do for the pack."

"Thank goodness." It came out as a murmur. Kiba's front paw rested on the top of her head. "We really are taken care of, aren't we?"

"Always," Cheza concurred. She drifted into prayers. She thought to press them upon the lap of her Mother. Maybe She could tell Cheza where the red-headed woman and the old lady were now.

The wind slammed against the door. It did not simply suggest the likeness of human voices; both Cheza and Kiba heard familiar voices through the nothingness.

"Cheza? Hey, is that you? If you're there, why don't you let me in?" There was a pause, and then the voice came as more of a sob. "Ah, just don't leave me in this. _Please_!"

Kiba lifted his head. Cheza gently squeezed his paw. She finally recognized the voice as belonging to a girl from one of the prison camps. She could not even remember her name. "It is not really her," Cheza explained to Kiba. Even if she had survived, the Flower Maiden wondered how she could have wandered through the same set of perils to arrive at a little house like this one. No; it was a deceit of some sort.

And Kiba's moment came, as well. A voice from the outside swirling black called him. "_Kiba_?" She was also young and female, to Cheza's surprise. "I know it's you. You know, you were wrong. It's _wonderful_ out here!" She laughed, "Come on, join me!" After a beat, she showed disappointment, but not resignation. "You're not going to come? All right, but I'll be wait-ing!"

"A ghost," Kiba finally spoke into the darkness. "The tempter stole the voice of a ghost. He should just let her rest."

Without the candles, the two would have been engulfed in an all-consuming darkness. There were no stars, no moon or moonlight, and the sun did not arrive when it was meant to mitigate their limited vision.

It was challenging monitoring time without light to mark the passing of the days or electricity to push the clocks along. They ate, they slept, and they prayed. With a candle in hand, they occasionally made use of the little adjoining powder room to freshen up.

At one point after she had awakened from what she considered her nightly sleep, she knew she had to speak. From the sound of the pace of his breathing, she knew Kiba was already awake, as well. "Kiba."

"Yes, Cheza."  
"We have one more obstacle to go, and then we shall be in Rakuen. The red-headed woman in my dream said that."

Kiba looked away. "There is always another obstacle, another enemy, another hill to climb before Rakuen."

"She did not say what it was," mused Cheza aloud. "Are you coming? We are meant to find this together."

"I ache for it to happen now." He draped his paw across his muzzle.

While true daylight still eluded them, Kiba's figure was slowly growing visible to Cheza. "Then now must almost be here," she reasoned.

It was in this muted, pre-morning light that the two cautiously emerged from the house. The environment outside proved no different except for its total stillness. It was white and expecting. The Flower Maiden knew that they were premature for the change, but that they were supposed to be out and waiting.

Kiba saw the expectation. It was like soil that needed to be watered and tilled before the plants emerged. It was enough to renew hope in him. He put on a brave smile and asked, "Where do we go from here, Flower?"

She walked listlessly though she knew how oddly at peace she was as she carried on through the open plain. Her body could no longer match her spirit in enthusiasm. And while they finally passed a hill, Cheza glanced over in curiosity, and halted nearly in mid-step.

A set of eyes flashed before her. It took her a moment to register that the two glowing orbs were, in fact, eyes. They did not match each other in the slightest; one was a wide, heated yellow, while the other was a smaller, muddled ice blue.

Cheza thought they seemed suspended in midair. And they did look faceless, as if existing only to stare outward.

Kiba had spotted him, too. Glared. Waited.

Cheza finally spoke. "It's the noble from my dream," she confided to Kiba in a whisper.

His figure did finally emerge. Cheza caught the sturdy-yet-sleek frame of another wolf. She could not conceal her surprise and confusion. This was not the man in fine robes who had sought to place her as a gear in his finely constructed plans. The froth from his jowls dripped to the frozen ground; his daggered teeth were bared.

She strove to find some intellect behind the hulking mass of muscle before her. In flashes as she had journeyed with the pack, more had been revealed to her. "What would Harmona say to this?" she challenged. But nothing registered on his menacing face.

It was easier now for Cheza to discern this massive figure. There was nothing spiritually strong, noble, or proud about him, as her companions had been. He had shed the tools that God had given him, as if he found them to be inferior to what he could take. He was not true wolf. He was no longer man. He was a self-made creature.

His emergence at the end of her and Kiba's time of traveling and waiting struck Cheza as ridiculous._ Is he here for revenge? What does it matter now?_

Her blithe thoughts must have offset her opponent, for his muscles twitched as if struck. Kiba silently moved in front of Cheza.

Her interior monologue continued, _Does he not know that I am nothing?_ Any plans for a Rakuen of his design had found her too late. She felt strengthened as she realized what little he had left.

Emboldened, she called out, "What is it you want? You have taken our family, our friends, our freedom, and even our names. If you want my life, then try and take it. But I have nothing left to give."

Darcia snorted. His teeth were revealed to her in a near smirk. He, too, seemed to be appraising her. _You're wrong,_ he said without making a sound.

Kiba squeezed her hand. He knew Darcia wanted a fight.

After a beat, Darcia said it. Standing perfectly still, he said without moving his mouth, _Do you want to know how your parents died?_

Kiba snarled. His torso appeared to elongate and he sunk to the ground as he took on his true form. He would not let Dacia toy with his treasured flower.

Delightedly taking the gesture as a challenge, Darcia dove toward Kiba like a thunderstorm enclosing the moonlight. Cheza bowed her head and silently asked God and Mary for goodness to prevail in all things.

Kiba inflicted the first blow. He aimed to tear at Darcia's jugular, but Darcia's reflexes were quick. He pulled away in time for Kiba to land and bite just underneath his rib cage. Once he had gripped abdominal muscle, Kiba would not let go. Darcia shook his opponent, and then swung him again. Finally, exerting his whole self into the act, he snapped Kiba back from him.

Kiba landed on his back, momentarily dazed but unharmed. Seemingly incognizant of his bleeding, Darcia charged again. Kiba gripped below his abdomen, but Darcia broke free and snapped at Kiba's chest. Cheza cried out as if the monster had bitten her.

Suddenly, Darcia halted. He turned to Cheza, panting in a crazed, ravenous way. As her vision blurred and her face became damp, she realized that she was weeping. She stood before him with her hands to her side, her palms facing outward in a gesture of humility. _For you, _she silently commended to God, and also to remind herself.

Darcia's front legs stepped confidently toward her while his hind legs shuffled. The impact of Kiba's blows was beginning to show on him. Kiba, for his own part, found that only one of his paws would move for him. He gazed across the distance at Cheza, as if to toss her the last of his strength.

Cheza and Kiba heard a clap of thunder. Even as she glanced above, Cheza knew the sky to be clear.

The former Lord Darcia took one more step toward his new prey. Then, a white-hot light crashed on top of him; quickly seeping through him. Cheza realized he had been struck by lightning. She turned her head. The smell was horrific. It was the odor of rotting flesh and charred hair that had unfurled toward her.

When the crackling noise stopped, Cheza looked back. Darcia was not there. Instead, a pile of ash about a foot high stood where he had been. The yellow-sick eyeball that was once the center of her nightmares capped the odd summit of debris.

Presently, a crow swooped down from an exposed tree. With frozen water underneath them, the growth appeared as little more than a very large bush. The crow cawed, plucked the eye from the refuse, and sailed past them to the East.

Cheza did not hesitate to run to Kiba. His pure white fur was coated in thick scarlet liquid. It had coursed down to the hardened snow; an oval stain blooming just beneath him.

Cheza couldn't breathe. She was afraid to touch him, thinking that any motion from her would worsen his pain. Still somehow, Kiba appeared before her as a young man again; his pullover jacket torn and shredded like a hula skirt. He held his arms outward to draw her to himself.

His stronger hand was stroking her hair. "You have to keep going."

"This one-_I_ will carry you."

"No. You keep going."

"Not without you."

"I'm not greater than the Love that made us both. So go. Finish what He put in your hands."

"I will come back for you." As he released her, Cheza still leaned forward long enough to kiss his mouth. Lightheaded from the contact, she found her feet tramping faster than she thought they could through the impacted snow.

After her adrenaline rush, she found fatigue quickly taking over. Her thoughts only came to her in incoherent jumbles. Kiba's blood had stained her cloak, but she did not notice. It occurred to her that she might be in shock.

Even her prayers no longer seemed to know what to say or how to be said.

_Is this what You wanted? _

_Kiba, did you not know that the sacrifice was not needed? We already have One whose Blood opened Paradise…_

Finally, to God she confessed, _Take it all…all I have. It is all for You…_

She had entered a land razed flat. It seemed unremarkable if she had had the power to observe, but above the discord, a word had appeared firm in her mind: _Here._

She sunk to her knees. Fatigue was taking over. But she thought something was stirring…

A melodious sound struck. Cheza could not define it. It was alert as a bell or a piano being struck forcefully, but it carried with it order and grace.

The sound tolled again. It resonated throughout the land. It filled her emptiness.

There was dampness across her face. It had started to rain. She wondered about the many feet of ice beneath, but the ground gave way, revealing fresh, plush grass.

She had not seen dawn because of the clouds, but now these formations in the sky wove themselves into gorgeous creations. Their white had a self-contained radiance and the grey spun into sleek silver thread.

They were angels' wings, flapping in rhythm with the sounds around her.

The sky finally cleared. Life was rich and abundant around her in the morning sunlight. She had no point of comparison for this. She lifted her head and watched as a flock of red birds flew past her. She had never seen birds like that before. They had a broad wingspan like a swan's.

In the middle of the East Coast of a certain land lies a valued Kingdom of God. At its center is a tower of white marble and crystal. The people there claim God Himself constructed it. The land is surrounded by cliffs; the base of the region has fertile soil for its people.

Though perhaps the most extraordinary feature of this kingdom from that of its neighbors is the alliance and close bond the people share with wolves. Most of the animals reside in the woods, but come and go through the town as they please. The people are gracious to the wolves, and the wolves respect the people.

By the base of the tower, however, one would often find a white wolf seated, waiting. This one reports on all the land tells him. He greets foreigners before anyone else does; and leads them to the young woman who has organized the land.

The spot where he had once bled is a most interesting sight. Silver-white flowers bloom there at night. They can not be found anywhere else. The locals call them lunar flowers.


End file.
